Catalan Education Ministry Strengthens Schools Legal Measures For Catalan Language

The Catalan Education ministry will manage the language projects of educational centres. This was announced on Monday by Anna Simó, Catalan minister of Education, who pointed out that in the face of the far-right reactionary wave it is necessary to “rearticulate a model of defence of the Catalan school”. The plan was presented this Monday, to protect the Catalan language in the classrooms.

 “The aim of the decree is to make the Catalan language the axis from which the educational projects of the centres are articulated and to deploy the second title of the Catalan Educational Law (LEC). The decree’s public information process begun this Monday, and will be extended until September 15th “so that everyone can make their contributions and leave a robust and consensual text,” said the Catalan Mininster

“The decree will specify how to elaborate, approve and evaluate the centres’ linguistic projects in order to protect the head team from the Spanish justice system’s onslaught. Thus, it establishes that the responsibility for the linguistic projects will fall on the Catalan ministry of education, and not on the head team,” said El Nacional En.

In addition, according to the text, the language projects of the center cannot be changed once the school year has begun, and it also includes measures to guarantee compliance with the projects.

Mandatory C2

The school’s language regime decree also lays down that teachers who access the temporary teachers’ pool or apply for the 2025-2026 academic year’s competitive examinations must have the C2 level in Catalan. Pursuant to the law approved by the Catalan Parliament one year ago, according to which Catalan is the main language in schools, and Spanish a curricular language, the draft regulation establishes how Catalan and Spanish are to be used in schools.

Thus, the draft establishes that from the 2025-2026 academic year onward, the C2 level in Catalan will be mandatory for new teachers, both interim and substitutes, for those appointed as directors or inspectors, as well as for all nominations stemming from promotions or job changes. Regarding foreign language teachers, it will be mandatory, to have, as the very least, B2 level in primary school and C1 level in secondary school. “The decree’s objective is to establish Catalan as the axis from which the educational projects of the centers are articulated,” said the Catalan Minister. 

Catalan: vehicular language

The decree is the third base with which the Catalan government intends to protect the Catalan language, and establishes that the main language of educational centres is Catalan, not only academically, but also in the communication with the families. 

However, exceptions will be made for newly arrived families who have no knowledge of the Catalan or Spanish language. Besides, the text also points out that Catalan does not have to be homogeneous in all the centres of Catalonia, thus understanding that “where a lack of oral and written competences is detected, or where its sociolinguistic composition requires it, linguistic immersion programs must be applied”.

Regarding the use of the Spanish language at school, it will have a “curricular and educational use” for some specific contents, educational activities and didactic resources, in circumstances in which it is necessary to reinforce teaching. Although the decree specifies that the measure “cannot impede Catalan or Aranese from being the main language of the centre nor the creation of separate groups based on the language”.

 However, the decree does not specify how percentages are distributed in the use of the official languages, and gives freedom to the centre to establish them as they see fit, according to the sociolinguistic reality of the centre in question.

The decree joins two other norms approved by the Catalan government: the law on the uses of Catalan and Spanish in schools, approved by a large majority in Parliament and which establishes that Catalan is the main language and Spanish is a curricular one, and the decree which rejects linguistic percentages. 

Last week, the Catalan High Court of Justice (TSJC) ratified the 25% of Spanish in three schools, which had already applied it as a precautionary measure. The court partially upheld the appeals of the families who wanted the school’s linguistic project to be overturned. Despite not accepting the petition, the TSJC forced some non-linguistic core subjects to be taught in Spanish.

Produced in association with El Nacional En

Edited by Judy J. Rotich and Newsdesk Manager