Noelia Carceller, March 23, 2022
Demonstration in defense of monolingualism in schools / CG
Only 6% of the public and 4% of the private sector go on strike against the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia-TSJC ruling that requires 25% of classes to be taught in Spanish in schools.
A blow to the pretended “great demonstration” in defense of monolingualism in Catalan schools. Hundreds of teachers and students have taken to the streets this Wednesday in Plaza Urquinaona in Barcelona to protest against the ruling of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) that requires at least 25% of classes to be taught in Spanish. This figure is far from last week, when up to 22,000 teachers demonstrated against the regional Minister of Education, Josep Gonzàlez-Cambray. According to the Department, the follow-up of the strike is 6% in public schools and just over 4% in concerted schools.
The conveners consider that the sentence is an “aggression” and ask to “disobey” it to protect linguistic immersion. As of next Friday, Catalan schools will be obliged to offer that percentage of subjects in Spanish. However, the Government is not willing to do so. In fact, Ustec’s spokeswoman, Iolanda Segura, has accused the Executive of “marketing and posturing” because it intends to apply the court’s decision in a camouflaged manner, with a decree that leaves the staff of the centers unprotected from “judicial offensives”.
From Urquinaona to Parliament
The demonstrators have started the tour around 12:45 in the center of Barcelona, behind a banner with the slogan “The public (school) in Catalan”. The route will reach the Parlament, passing through the headquarters of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia TSJC. The conveners have asked the regional Minister of the Generalitat, Josep Gonzàlez-Cambray, to defend Catalan and place it as the “vehicular language” in all centers of Catalonia. Unions, Intersindical-CSC, COS, Ustec and the Sindicat d’Estudiants del Països Catalans (Sepc), have participated in a mobilization that demands that Catalan Government should assume responsibilities of the rule and not the directors of centers.
Bernat Pèlach, spokesman for Intersindical union, has demanded that Cambray “stop pretending that he does things to defend Catalan and move from words to deeds”. He has urged him to create “a single linguistic plan in all centers”, regardless of their reality. Something that is not in line with what the counselor announced yesterday. He also believes that teachers should have “more training” and defends that they have a C2 level of Catalan, as the Department will require from 2024 teachers who want to practice in Catalonia.
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