Valencian survey: fanaticism and failure

The results of the so-called survey on the base language of teaching in the Valencian Community had to be known centre by centre, until this Thursday at noon the Valencian government came to offer global data, two days after closing the voting. I say so-called because in reality it is not a survey on "the base language" (a concept without content, except for some Spanish ultra-nationalist hat), but a manoeuvre to establish linguistic segregation in public schools, and to push Catalan (or Valencian) to the side and turn it into an associated language.

It turns out that the results are not at all what was expected by the Minister of Education of the Generalitat Valenciana, José Antonio Rovira, one of those characters of the Spanish extreme right who make the mistake of believing their own propaganda. The results of the survey must be weighed and analysed, but in any case they are clearly in favour of public education in Valencian. The educational community, and the mobilised civil society, have demonstrated vitality and strength – against the stereotypes that are usually attributed to Valencians, also from the short-sighted paternalism of certain Catalan patriots – and an important capacity to respond to the abuses of an administration given over to the neo-Francoist ravings of Vox, eager toto offer new glories in Spain. In the Balearic Islands, the PP also backed down on a project for "educational freedom", parallel to the Valencian one, when it came up against the frontal opposition of the citizens. They also planned to segregate students by language, and had already budgeted 20 million in the last quarter of 2024 alone to make it possible. This is another problem, not a minor one: segregating by language requires a spectacular investment of public money, and a logistical over-effort. Just to carry out a project that is pedagogical nonsense and a direct attack on social cohesion.

Rovira i Mazón and the Vox partners, however, do not give up on applying linguistic segregation, and they have made a tailor-made regulation to create teaching groups exclusively in Spanish only if 17% request it. They have already begun to design segregated groups for the youngest children, from two to six years old. The objective is to degrade public school, so that it becomes a space of linguistic and social conflict, to the benefit of private and concerted education. That is to say, as always there is not only an ideological interest behind it, but an economic and class one. It is about money, and trying to make everyone who can get away from public education, discredited and presented as an "indoctrinating" agent. The dangerous thing is that they achieve this, despite the resounding failure of the survey (in the Balearic Islands they have also made moves in favor of the false idea of "the freedom of parents" that have had a similar response). Avoiding this will continue to be the work of civil society, since nothing can be expected from the institutions.