“Catalan is the language of the PAU and continues to be despite the interference that has occurred”, says the ‘consellera’ Geis
only the 2.8% of the more than 40,000 students who appeared last week for selectivity in Catalonia chose to take the exams in Spanish. Meanwhile, the vast majority -97.2%- opted for Catalan. The figure is slightly higher than that of last year, when the male and female students who opted for Spanish were around 96% in both the June and September calls.
“Catalan is the language of the PAU (university entrance exams) and it continues to be despite the interference that has occurred”, the ‘consellera’ of Research and Universitats has just explained, Gemma Geis, alluding to the ruling of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) that declared the 2021 selectivity instructions null and void, when students were asked to say by a show of hands who wanted the exam in Spanish. The court required that the tests should be delivered in the three languages without identifying the students or noting the option chosen by each one.
from them.
After commenting that his department did not have to give explanations to the TSJC about the data on the use of Catalan and Spanish, Geis has asked that they stop interfering in education and in the university, creating “non-existent conflicts”. “We will continue to defend that Catalan is Catalonia’s own language, with an open gaze to the world”, she concluded.
The days prior to the announcement of selectivity in Catalonia (June 14, 15 and 16), tests were carried out to test technology that would detect the chosen language options in an anonymous and efficient way based on QR codes and bluetooth geolocation, in collaboration with the Center for Telecommunications and Information Technologies (CTTI). Will they be applied again next year or will there be new methods? Faced with this question, the ‘consellera’ has replied that her department is also in charge of the investigation and that, therefore, does not rule out exploring new methods.
25% in schools
Selectivity is not the only educational field with controversy over the use of languages. A few weeks ago, the Executive Council approved the decree law that intends to shield Catalan in the classrooms as a response to another judgment of the TSJC that obliges schools and institutes to execute the 25% of classes in Spanish. The decree law makes clear the rejection of the percentages of Catalan and Spanish in the classrooms and establishes that the Department of Education will validate the linguistic projects of all the educational centers of Catalonia in a specific period of time, thus exempting the school directors from possible legal responsibilities.
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The new Secretary of State for Education, Jose Manuel Bar, explained a few days ago in a meeting with journalists that “the sentences are to be carried out” but that the ministry will not undertake any action – for now – but will let the Catalan regional and judicial authorities do their job. The Catalan decree, like the current educational law (Lomloe, known as ‘Celaá law’), establishes that students are competent in both Spanish and Catalan when they finish secondary education.
university law
Regarding the future organic law of the university system (Losu), Geis has assured that it is a text that still has a long way to go. Indeed, the rule at the moment is only a draft that has to be approved again in the Council of Ministers and debated and ratified in Parliament. In any case, in Geis’s opinion, the rule “must recognize the differences” of Catalan universities and be more flexible in terms of funding. The Basque head of Education, Jokin Bildarratz -who held a meeting with the ‘consellera’ in Barcelona- has also made it clear that Losu must consider that there are communities, such as the Basque Country, where the relationship between the university and the company “already has a long way traveled”.