The Government of Salvador Illa (PSC) will focus on making Catalan “the cornerstone” of the education system once the Constitutional Court has responded to the request of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) that requested to declare unconstitutional the law that regulates the use of languages in the classroom. This was stated by the spokesperson of the Catalan Executive, Silvia Paneque, one day after the start of the school year and in reference to the twenty schools which respect bilingualism that the TSJC ruled, for the entire system, in 2020.
“The government is convinced that Catalan is the vehicular language and the cornerstone of our education system. “We are going to focus on this,” said the Government spokesperson, after being asked, at the press conference that followed the weekly meeting of the Executive chaired by Illa, about her position on the fact that about twenty schools in Catalonia comply with this course, with the model of linguistic conjunction (Spanish-Catalan bilingualism; and trilingualism in the Val d’Aran by adding Aranese) ordered by the courts in application of the regulations.
In this sense, Paneque asked the Government or the Ministry of Education, which directs Esther Niubó, Work is underway to provide a response to the Constitutional Court, in case the High Court overturns the regional norm that disregards the 2020 ruling of the TSJC, which is applicable to the entire education system and not just at the request of parents, the spokesperson said. indicated that, in case it reaches this point of confrontation with the courts, the guidelines established by the Department of Language Policy, in favor of maintaining compulsory immersion only in Catalan.
Also regarding the start of the school year, the Government congratulated “the educational community” for a day yesterday that took place “normally and without incidents”. This Monday was the first day of the school year for primary and secondary school students, a total of more than 1.6 million children. Paneque indicated that this year improvements will be introduced into the system, with the aim of reversing the poor academic results in Catalonia, a community that is online Spanish regions according to most indicators and studies.
A “frankly bad” position
Precisely, to improve the results of the PISA reports, prepared by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and which show that Catalan students are among the least educated in all of Spain, the spokesperson recalled that the government has signed an agreement with this organisation, with which “this week” “Conversations” will begin with the aim of proposing improvements to the education system.
“This organization has extensive experience and experience on the international scene,” the spokesman recalled, but clarified that any changes will be made, in advance, with the consensus of the teachers. “The actions that will be developed, obviously, will be carried out with the educational community and with the consensus of the teachers, (…) whatever happens This will be done by consensus. with the educational community.
Asked about the position of the new Generalitat, in the hands of the PSC, on the improvements that should be implemented and on the educational model defended by the socialists, Paneque was not able to indicate a single measure or a single general idea. And he mentioned the agreement with the OECD: “We will be able to give details of the agreement in the coming weeks. The main objective is to reverse the PISA data. Of course, he acknowledged that the educational level in the region is bad: “We will not reverse the situation in a single school year. We will integrate the improvements over the different school years, “The starting situation is frankly bad.”
