The Minister of Education, José Antonio Rovira, has announced today that "urgently" he will modify the Valencian Multilingualism Law so that there are no students from the municipalities of Spanish-speaking areas who are "forced to study History or Mathematics in Valencian." ". As he stated in an interview in À Punt, the head of Education has insisted that "we want to correct this immediately."
To this end, he has announced that it will be done through the Law to Support the Budgets of the Generalitat Valenciana for 2024. The councilor has assessed that "it does not make sense that a child from Requena exempt from studying the subject of Valencian by law would be forced to study History or Mathematics in Valencian". "No one has managed to explain it to me, but that's what the Botànic did," he added.
For Rovira, it does not make sense that "a child from Requena exempt from studying the subject of Valencian by law is forced to study History or Mathematics in Valencian." "No one has managed to explain it to me, but that is what the Botànic did," she added, alluding to the previous government of PSPV, Compromís and Unides Podem.
In general, he has insisted that the global reform of the Multilingualism Law will be based on "the freedom of choice of parents." "My ultimate goal is for a child from Requena to study the subject of Valencian and, if he wants, only the subject of Valencian, but it is good that all the children of this community study Valencian. And I will always defend that," he said. emphasized.
On the other hand, regarding the Valencian Academy of Language (AVL), the councilor has assured that he does not feel "disauthorized" by the 'president' of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, after he assured that the entire Council recognizes that This entity has scientific authority in Valencia in the face of the controversy generated when Rovira said that he did not have the "absolute truth."
"Not at all (I feel unauthorized). What Carlos Mazón said is the truth, according to the norm we have and the Statute of Autonomy, the AVL is the linguistic authority in this community," he declared.
Now, Rovira has pointed out that "that does not mean that there are people who think that there are some errors" and that "the proof is that the AVL dictionary translates many words in different ways." "This is what I wanted to say - he has justified -: there is no absolute and unique Valencian, sometimes a word has different meanings for many people."
As he has indicated, while the AVL establishes that a word can be expressed in two ways, "other associations" say that there is a third, entities that have recognized that "they are not official" after highlighting that he is an economist and not a linguist.
In any case, the head of Education has assured that Mazón has "resolved" this controversy which, in his opinion, "has no more importance." "At no time have I felt unauthorized," he has reiterated, and has insisted that, like Mazón, he recognizes the authority of the AVL because "the Statute says so and there is nothing more."
Carlos Mazón will meet on September 18 with the president of the AVL, Verònica Cantó, at his own request with the aim of opening a new stage "of sensitivity" with the "social and political Valencianism" that he considers that in recent years has felt alienated from the regulatory entity. He also asked that the Academy address other "sensitivities" about Valencian that he believes have not been taken into account in recent years.
