Fresh assault on Catalan
During
the last few years, the Spanish
Conservative Party (Partido Popular), moved by a social majority which
includes sectors of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), has been
carrying out a determined, constant attack against the linguistic
normalization of the Catalan
language throughout the Catalan-speaking Countries, and particularly
against the successful
Catalan schooling system. Several surveys reveal that students educated
in
Catalan have the same knowledge of Spanish (or even greater) as students
from regions where Spanish is the only language spoken. So
where is the problem?
The language immersion system in Catalan carried out in
all schools in Catalonia, most schools in the Balearic Islands and
in a third of schools in the Valencia region has widely demonstrated its
effectiveness because the students are able to gain a good level of Catalan as
well as Spanish. However this is not the only important aspect of this
issue. It is to be noted that it brings greater social cohesion among
students, as all students are socialized in Catalan. It would be really
difficult if it was done any another way, particularly for immigrant schoolchildren.
The system is absolutely essential in Catalan society, as over a third of the inhabitants of the Catalan-speaking
countries were not born there, having arrived over two migration periods,
the
first taking place between 1955 and 1970, with immigrants from other
Spanish
regions, and the second taking place as of 2000 coming from all over the
world, with a huge linguistic diversity. These multiple origins might
have
caused ethnic conflicts, but the migrants have been peacefully
assimilated by Catalan
society. Furthermore, the system has created a considerable level of
integration of these newcomers, their
children, and above all, their grandchildren. Catalan education and
social identification with the Catalan language have become the key
factors in maintaining social cohesion.
Now, relying on its absolute
majority, the Spanish Partido Popular government
is trying to
carry out its educational reform by establishing a more selective
educational
system, as well as removing civic education classes. Furthermore, it is
attempting to destroy
language immersion and to sideline the Catalan language, instead of it
remaining the central language in schooling. Last Monday December
3rd, Spanish minister of education José Ignacio Wert announced the
bill for the Fundamental Law for Improvement of Educational Quality
(LOMCE). This is the latest assault on the Catalan model of
language immersion, after several legal findings over the last two years
have attempted to finish off Catalan as the lingua franca
at schools, together
with the anti-Catalan education measures carried out by the autonomous
governments of Valencia and the Balearic Islands. Most particularly,
this bill would let any student graduate from compulsory secondary
education
(ESO) and from high school without ever having passed any exams in
Catalan,
although the student would have to pass Spanish exams in order to obtain either diploma.
In
the case of Catalonia, this new law
contravenes the Spanish Constitution as well as the Catalan Statute of
Autonomy because it violates the capacities of the Catalan government (Generalitat) in the field of education concerning the vernacular language. Furthermore, the same law imposes a financial
obligation (the bill states that the
Catalan government will have to pay private schools for those students who want
Spanish schooling until the balance between Spanish and Catalan teaching hours
is established) without corresponding budget assignations for the
Catalan government. Moreover, this would provoke a dangerous apartheid division between students depending on the language they chose.
http://www.helpcatalonia.cat/2012/12/fresh-assault-on-catalan.html
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