01.05.2014 - 08:50
The Catalan Government will bring the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC)—which requires that 25% of classes be held in Spanish in those classrooms in which a single students asks for it—to the Supreme Court. The Minister of Education, Irene Rigau, made the announcement after learning about the TSJC rulings, and said she was surprised that they had made their decisions so quickly. In the appeal, the ministry will ask that the decision be suspended, until the Constitutional Court makes a ruling. If it is not suspended, it will go into affect on June 2.
The Supreme Court of Justice of Catalonia rejected the appeals of the Ministry of Education and of the administration and families of the five schools that have been forced to hold 25% of their classes using Spanish as the vehicular language, where a single student has asked for it. The magistrates consider that the vehicular use of Spanish must be maintained in the classrooms, thereby affirming the blow to linguistic immersion, and set the amount at 25%.
The TSJC admits that Catalan is the central focus of the educational system but says that it must follow the constitutional mandate of a certain percentage of Spanish. If the Generalitat or the schools don’t institute the change, according to the ruling, the courts will. And that is how they reached the figure of 25%, affirming their earlier decision.
