ERC, Junts, PSC and the commons close the agreement on Catalan in the classroom

White smoke at last.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
25 May 2022 Wednesday 01:33
32 Reads
ERC, Junts, PSC and the commons close the agreement on Catalan in the classroom

White smoke at last. ERC, Junts, PSC and En Comú Podem yesterday closed a new agreement in Parliament on the use and learning of official languages ​​in non-university education with which it is intended to contain "judicial interference" in this matter. The pact, in the form of a parliamentary law, establishes that Catalan is the vehicular language, and therefore the central axis of teaching at school, and that Spanish is the language "of curricular use".

The agreement signed in the Catalan Chamber by the four parties –which represent 80% of the Parliament thanks to its 106 seats– makes it possible to revive the frustrated consensus reached on March 24 regarding the reform of the Language Policy Law, of which Junts unchecked a few hours later. But it remains to be seen whether the formula agreed upon to recognize the role of co-official languages ​​in education will make it possible to stop the judicial rulings that have been taking place on this matter for years.

Two months after the March agreement, the four formations have remade the consensus through a double track. On the one hand, the aforementioned new law, in which the most divergent positions of PSC and Junts are finally brought together, without which it was impossible to speak of a minimum linguistic consensus. It clarifies the role of co-official languages ​​in educational centers and ignores linguistic percentages in teaching, as the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) does in its rulings.

And on the other hand, the Government will soon approve a decree law that must be validated in Parliament, with which it wants to complement the rule signed by the four parties, giving coverage to the directors and teachers of the centers against judicial pronouncements.

As for the bill, it establishes that Catalan "is the language normally used as the vehicular and learning language of the educational system and that of normal use in the reception of newly arrived students." In this way, the vehicularity of Catalan is guaranteed, on which all the parties agreed, but at the same time it is indicated that "the teaching and curricular and educational use of Catalan and Spanish must be guaranteed" with "an adequate presence in curricula and educational projects. The objective is that “all students achieve oral and written command of the two official languages ​​by the end of compulsory education”.

In addition, as in the March consensus, the new law also establishes that the determination of the presence of the official languages ​​in education "must take into account the general sociolinguistic situation, that of the centers and their environment, the objectives of linguistic normalization and the evolution of the linguistic, oral and written learning process”.

The formula with which to reflect that Spanish should also be the language of learning in schools was the main stumbling block in negotiations that have intensified in the last two weeks, as was Junts' stubbornness in specifically including in the law that it is not possible to establish percentages in language learning.

The final result pleased both socialists and post-convergents since both-in addition to Esquerra-confirmed yesterday that recognizing the curricular use of Spanish means that it is a language of learning, as in the frustrated reform of the Law on Language Policy.

The articles of the new law "is faithful to the spirit" of the March agreement, according to the Socialists, who assured yesterday that with it the sentence of the TSJC is fulfilled. On the other hand, Junts emphasized that the bill manages to "shield" Catalan in schools and that in no case will Spanish be considered as the vehicular language.

According to the postconvergents, with this law "an increase in the Spanish language in educational curricula does not follow", but it will depend on each one of the projects. And together with their government partners, they highlighted the fact that only "pedagogical criteria" will come into play. "No other criterion, institution, or body will be empowered to regulate the use of languages ​​in educational centers," said the general secretary of Junts Jordi Sánchez.

It will be in the decree law of the Government, of which more details could be known today, where the rejection of the establishment of linguistic percentages in education will be specified, as the TSJC does in its resolutions, something that the socialists will not support for constituting a " challenge” to the court. The common people will wait to know the literalness of the text.

The agreement to four came just a few hours after the president of the Government Pere Aragonès appeared at a press conference from Palau together with the vice president Jordi Puigneró to present a balance, in his satisfactory opinion, of the first year of the legislature.

This succession of events is not trivial, since the opposition parties were not willing to rush the announcement of the pact and allow the Government to score a credit that corresponds to the parties. Nor is it trivial that this time there was no family photo to solemnize the agreement.