The High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has declared the suspension of the validity of decree 91/2024, of May 14, approved by the Government, which regulates the linguistic regime of the non-university education system and which places Catalan as the vehicular language in schools and institutes. The entity Assembly for a Bilingual School, which fights to increase the presence of the Castilian language in the educational field, appealed the Decree, which has been suspended by the contentious chamber 5 of Barcelona of the TSJC, presided over by judge José Luis Aguado Baños.
The suspended decree establishes the language regime of the non-university education system by regulating the use and teaching of languages, the development of the language project of educational centres and the regulation of the knowledge and use of languages by teaching and non-teaching staff. The decree arose after the observation that there has been a decline in the use of Catalan in recent years, both in the educational field and in society in general.
The Government of Pere Aragonès approved the decree two days after the elections of May 12. With the text, the Catalan Executive sought to “shield” the use of Catalan in schools through several measures. The text is structured in five chapters and 36 articles and regulates aspects such as the Catalan language immersion model or the preparation and approval of language projects for schools. The content of the decree had been made known a year ago, when it was put on public display and processed urgently to be approved last spring. In addition, it repeats concepts already regulated by the other two new regulations that in 2022 the Government and the parties in favor of the language immersion model rushed to approve to stop the ruling of the same High Court of Justice, which required 25% of Spanish to be taught throughout the system from May of that year.
Specifically, regarding the immersion model, the new decree establishes Catalan as the vehicular language in schools and as the language used in communications with families, in the reception of newly arrived students or in non-teaching activities such as extracurricular activities. Spanish is considered a “curricular” language, which is initially relegated to the subject of Spanish Language, but the door is left open for educational centres to modulate its presence and it can be used in “some specific content, educational activities or teaching resources”, depending on the social reality of the students.
Regarding language projects – a document drawn up by educational centres that includes the profile of students and how different languages are taught – the decree insists that, from now on, they cannot be modified mid-course and must be approved and validated by the Department of Education, in order to protect management from judicial requirements.
The now suspended decree also aims to regulate the level of knowledge of Catalan that teaching staff must have. On this aspect it establishes that “from the 2027-28 academic year, and if the department so determines”, active teachers who want to be promoted or change positions must prove a high level of Catalan, corresponding to C2, the highest. Until now, teachers have been incorporated with a B2 level of Catalan (the old level C), which is automatically obtained upon completion of compulsory secondary education. The new requirements regarding the level of Catalan of teachers will have to be approved and applied, in any case, by the government that ends up being formed in Catalonia.
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