The Central Administrative Court, based in Madrid, has admitted that the lawsuit filed by A Mesa for linguistic normalization against the National Distance University (UNED) should be processed, after a professor failed the exam of the former leader of the BNG, Bieito Lobeira, for having done it in Galician.
Specifically, Lobeira studies Anthropology at UNED and his associated center is Pontevedra, where he went to take his exam last January. However, the tests are scanned and sent to Madrid, where The professor who saw his exam didn’t grade it, so he ended up failing.
As reported by A Mesa pola Normalización and indicated in the decree of admission for treatment, the student appealed through the internal channels of the university until In May, the Rectorate rejected the revision of his grade. Thus, the linguistic entity took legal action to recognize the student’s right to have his exam graded and “his right to take it” to take it “in the co-official language of the territory where he is being examined.”
The request has just been admitted to treatment by order taken on Mondayon September 2, by a lawyer from the Central Administrative Litigation Court number 4.
A Mesa pola Normalización recalls that article 5 of the statutes of the UNED, approved by a royal decree of 2011, recognizes as one of its “fundamental missions” the “support for the languages and cultures of Spain”.
The statutes themselves add that the university “will collaborate with regional and other territorial administrations for the dissemination of language, culture and the best service to its citizens in higher education.”
In addition, the text commits UNED to “strengthen” and “progressively” integrate teaching, content and tutoring in co-official languages. However, the institution itself defends that “the teaching team has neither the competence nor the instruments to evaluate a written test in a language other than Spanish” and that, therefore, “he has no obligation to correct it.”
The president of A Mesa, Marcos Maceira, recalls that UNED is “a public university”, of the State, so “as such it must set an example” and respect the official status of the Galician language. “No person who takes an exam in Galicia should be forced or compelled to take an exam in Spanish”, he emphasizes.
