The new linguistic educational map for the Valencian Community was finalized this week with the registration of definitive data on teaching units in both Valencian and Spanish. This information was in the process of being developed until now. Source: ABC
«The Administration refused to provide the information, citing a lack of resources or unprocessed data, despite language plans being approved in advance for each academic year,» they lamented.
«Biased interpretation of the law»
Sources from the Conselleria (regional ministry) denied any breaches of regulations regarding minimum learning requirements in both languages.
The new educational map, configured after the vote between Valencian and Spanish as the base language of instruction, was completed this week with the registration of the final data on units in each language.
«'School for All' makes a biased interpretation of the law, and we have already responded to a letter they sent on the matter, indicating that as long as educational centers meet the percentage requirements and core subjects like Mathematics or Social Sciences are taught in the base language, the centers are within the law,» they stated.
Colleges and institutes «have the autonomy to establish how they distribute the rest of the subjects among the different vehicular languages,» they added, also clarifying that «in the current educational system, there is no concept of a 'core subject' as they refer to».
Regarding their data request, specifically, the units per center for each base language and which subjects are taught in each language, the department of Conseller José Antonio Rovira assured that «'School for All' was informed that centers have until November 14th to record their general annual curriculum plans».
And a common denominator: associations active in the defense of each co-official language complain equally of discrimination, which seems impossible due to the contradictory nature of these claims.
Globally, both nationalist entities affiliated with independence and the 'Catalan NGO' (Plataforma per la Llengua), Escola Valenciana (with nuances) and the unions STEPV, CCOO and UGT, as well as defenders of Spanish (Hablamos Español, School for All, Platform of Teachers for Linguistic Freedom or Languages and Freedom), express dissatisfaction with the application of what mothers and fathers have chosen.
Beyond subjective perceptions, it is clear that some students are not being taught in the language they chose due to not having enough peers to form a group.
But apart from that minority of specific cases, in the rest, the request is ostensibly met, pending the final data.
The latest news in this battle to secure a larger quota for Valencian or Spanish has been, on one hand, the repeal of the Law on Educational Freedom being included in the demands of the teachers' strike, ostensibly for salary improvements.
And in the case of the crusade for Spanish, 'School for All' denounced this week «the serious asymmetry in the application of the Law on Educational Freedom, which is leading to the exclusion of Spanish as a vehicular language in numerous centers of the Valencian Community».
'School for All': «Permissive interpretation»
Although the norm «expressly recognizes that students must receive the majority of subjects in the base language chosen by their families, without excluding the presence of the other official language, however the lack of regulatory development and the permissive interpretation of the Ministry of Education are causing that in centers with a Valencian base language, Spanish is relegated to a residual role,» they assured.
In contrast, according to their statement, in centers with a Spanish base language, Valencian is indeed taught in many core subjects such as Mathematics or Sciences.
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«The result is an unequal education that contradicts the spirit of the law and the slogan with which it was presented: 'Two languages, one community,'» according to 'School for All', which already warned of this «imbalance» in a letter sent to the Ministry of Education and requested, through the Transparency Portal, the data on the distribution of language hours in the centers.
