Turn in the reception of children who come from other countries and integrate into Catalan schools. From the next school year 2023-2024, newly arrived teenagers from their country will have basic knowledge of the language before being integrated into their institute. For the first few months, they will receive only Catalan and Spanish lessons from teachers specialized in language teaching for foreigners, such as those from official language schools. Once they achieve a basic level of communication and can follow an ordinary class, they will integrate into the high school classrooms with their peers.
This measure, of a pedagogical and not a social nature, which aims to combat the school dropout of this group, cracks one of the most important social consensuses on the non-segregation of immigration. And it sets off alarms.
The plan of the Barcelona Education Consortium is intended for foreign 14- and 15-year-olds, who are in the 3rd and 4th year of ESO. The measure replaces the "reception classrooms" currently organized by the centers if there are enough immigrant students to constitute them (at least 10). These are Catalan reinforcement classes, usually given by the language and literature teacher, designed to improve their communicative competence while the young person normalizes his life.
"In the education sector, the reception classroom is indispensable, because it allows the student to integrate into the center from the first day, but when it is really so urgent that they understand the language instrumentally, to understand the teacher and be able to express themselves orally and in writing, their immediate schooling does not make it easier", explains Gemma Verdés, head of post-compulsory education at the Barcelona Education Consortium, from where this program will be promoted. "When a foreign student, especially one from a non-Romance language, arrives in the education system in 1st or 2nd year of ESO, he has enough time to achieve a good level of skills, but in 3rd and 4th year he has little time left. We clearly identify the factor of late incorporation with the educational non-continuity index", says the director of the Consortium.
When they finish secondary school, only 57% of these young people continue studying, compared to 86% of the rest of the native or immigrant students who arrived in previous years. And the risk of disengagement continues afterwards as well. 40% drop out of the first year of secondary vocational education and 14% at high school. "Centres don't always have the resource of a reception classroom and, in this case, there are two, three or four students who are sitting in a chair without understanding anything for months, with little learning," says Verdés. And the tutors do what they can, he adds.
Last year, 804 immigrants of this age arrived in Barcelona, who were added over the course of the year. More than half (420) went to school in the 4th year of secondary school and not necessarily at the beginning of the year.
The Consortium's plan is to open an externalized and professionalized reception classroom per district. The location is not yet available, although work is being done to provide underutilized youth facilities in the morning. The centers will be coordinated by teachers from the official language school (EOI) (professionals in teaching languages to non-native speakers), high school teachers (teachers and experts in adolescence), and from schools adults (experts in accompaniment and guidance). "The ideal would be to reach a level equivalent to a B1, which is basic", according to Verdes. The time in these language acceleration centers is not established as it depends on the student.
However, to reach this level an average of 300 to 400 hours is calculated, according to the standards, which implies a minimum of four intensive months. According to Montse Sábat, head of studies at the EOI of Drassanes, immersion in the language-speaking society accelerates learning, as does prior knowledge of a Romance language, as is the case with young people from Latin American countries. Also those who know French, like some Maghrebs.
In other cases (Arabs, Chinese, Russians, Pakistanis) "you have to start by teaching them the alphabet, vocabulary and communication strategies", points out Sábat. A young person, the teacher explains, learns to construct texts, to read books and to know the language, but from prior knowledge of the language. And this is the task of the language teacher. But the goal for foreigners is for them to learn to express themselves and communicate from scratch. The exercises are different, it is not phonetics, but pronunciation. It is not conjugation, but exploring the possibilities of a verb, such as to have (I have a sister, I have a house, I have...). "They learn to listen, understand, ask, make themselves understood.
For Sábat, this acceleration of the language will allow them to dive into the deep part of the pool knowing how to swim. "We are not inventing anything new", points out Verdes, "it is what is being deployed in other European countries (Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden) also concerned about the high school dropout rate of immigrants". The dropout rate for young people aged between 18 and 25 who have not continued studying after secondary school is close to 10% in Europe, but it is 25% for the foreign group.
Sociologists who are experts in education such as Miguel Ángel Alegre (Autonomous University of Barcelona) or Sheila González (University of Barcelona) share that the under-funding of reception classrooms in educational centers does not help the group of young immigrants. These classrooms were implemented decades ago to coincide with waves of intensive immigration, and have become an expendable resource on the part of the administration and receive little attention from the educational centers that do not always assign the most suitable teachers.
"The current model does not work and not only because of the lack of resources but because the figure of the tutor, who is an educator, is very weak", says González, an analyst in educational inequality. He also trusts that the Consortium's program has taken into account the difficulties faced by the language acceleration pilot launched in Reus and Vic in 2008 and which ended up being closed.
"My question is: does everyone have to go through these classrooms? I understand that it is useful for students of non-Romance languages, but is it necessary for those who speak Spanish?”. He also questions whether the isolation of the country's teenagers is a good thing. "Find moments of contact with other young people of your age, even if they sign up for extracurricular activities", he recommends.
This is also a question raised by Alegre, head of projects at the Jaume Bofill Foundation, who a few months ago proposed a shock plan against school dropouts. "I think that the linguistic and educational needs of each young person should first be identified to see the level of support they need," he says. It also proposes to incorporate an approach to learning the contents of other subjects, to include the guidance and support of families and to incorporate a liaison person with the educational center to prevent it from being "a 'gutified' bridge that does not go nowhere".
For González, dropping out of school has to do not only with the skills acquired, but also with the fact of being welcomed and integrated in the educational center. "Language acceleration should be accompanied by other important measures, such as support for migratory mourning, knowledge of the educational system and guidance," he says.
