The Catalan High Court (TSJC) has again used Catalonia’s recent educational legislation to oblige a primary school in Girona to teach one or more subjects in Spanish which “due to their importance in the curriculum as a whole and their teaching load, can be considered as ‘main’ subjects”. This is what Vilaweb published this Wednesday. The application of quotas, in terms of percentages of teaching time, was left out of the new Catalan legislation on language policy in schools, but it does nevertheless define Spanish as “a language of curricular and educational use”. With this premise, the TSJC has imposed Spanish in a school and requires the directors of the school to comply with the court order. As the digital newspaper points out, the teaching of one or more subjects in Spanish will affect the child of the family that requested it, and their entire class.
Specifically, what is on the table is the decisive role which the arithmetic has placed in the hands of Junts and the support that the pro-independence party may or may not be able to give to a Pedro Sánchez government. News stories like this one, however, sow doubts and move negotiating positions apart. And the Catalan president in exile, Carles Puigdemont has now spoken out on the subject, making a critical reflection on the approaches taken with regard to Catalonia’s situation up till now.
