24.03.2014 - 11:39
The parents at the Pare Català school in Valencia are ready for battle since the Valencian Department of Education announced that one of the Catalan classrooms would be eliminated now, at midterm. The children who chose to study in Catalan will be forced to receive their schooling in Spanish if the government doesn’t change its opinion. But the families have not given up and they are still fighting, both in the courts and in person.
The school had been successful in opening a new Catalan classroom this school year, thanks to the high demand from the parents. But two out of the seventy-two families lodged a complaint asking that the linguistic program be canceled. The Escola Valenciana association and most of the families claim that the Education Department had pressured the families so that the classroom would be eliminated. And they warn that the decision to remove the classroom would go against the will of 95% of the families who at the beginning of the school year had signed up ther children for classes in Catalan.
Social media campaign
The mobilization in defense of the vehicular language at school is being made visible on social media through a Twitter campaign and with videos. On Thursday at noon, supporters used the hashtags #trievlencià and #totsambparecatalà. In addition, they published a video on YouTube featuring the children who might end up without a Catalan education singing a Catalan folksong.
