In the middle of a judicial offensive against Catalan in education, Catalonia's High Court has agreed with the Assembly for a Bilingual School, which last June sued the Catalan government over its instructions for holding university entrance exams, because they only asked invigilators to distribute exam papers in Catalan, and only when students requested it handing out a copy in Catalan. Thus, Catalonia's High Court has declared the instructions null and void. According to the judges, doing this is contrary to the Constitution because it violates the right of students not to be discriminated against (Article 14 of the Constitution) and the right to education (Article 27).

The 2021 university entrance exams were marked by the judicial decision to stop prioritising Catalan in exams and to distribute the questions in Spanish too. That order was published when the exams were already printed and the Generalitat came outand stated the exams would not change: the exams would be distributed in Catalan and anyone who wanted to could ask for them in Spanish or Aranese, as had always been the case. Less than 24 hours before the start of the September exam date, which is held between Tuesday and Thursday, Catalonia's High Court has reissued a resolution ordering the Catalan Department for Universities and Research and the Inter-University Council of Catalonia "not to identify" the students who choose to take the tests in Spanish and to offer the students "the statements in any of the co-official languages of Catalonia, without preference for any of them", since the decision corresponds to the students in whichever way allows them to complete the exercises to the best of their abilities. In practice, the judicial decision means each student will have to be asked individually in which language he or she wants to read the statements of the exams before starting each test.

Maissae has gotten an 8 in the selectivity, but the merit is not so much the result as the enormous effort and the great determination that she has shown to get into university. She has been living in a wheelchair for a long time, affected by a degenerative disease that only allows her to move one hand. She has been able to wear masks to class even though she was choking and has taken the university entrance exams at her own home. A story of self-improvement that she wants to serve as an example and inspiration for students with disabilities: "We can do it all. Although she is aware that there are not many cases like hers and that she is an exceptional witness, Maissae faces the interview with modesty and shyness. She smiles with some embarrassment when she says the marks she has achieved out loud in the university entrance exam or when she admits that her teachers have told her that they are very proud of her."

Although it is considered the gateway to university and one of the key moments for students, the Catalan university entrance exam is a test that the vast majority of those who take it will pass. It is, therefore, a mechanism to sort students who want to do a university degree and, therefore, it is not so important to pass or fail but to get a high enough grade to enter into a desired career. Sometimes, students who want to study highly sought-after degrees (and, therefore, with higher cut-off marks) put everything on the line for a few tenths, which causes them to put pressure on themselves to become self-demanding in order to memorise content that they end up forgetting. Now a group of researchers have found that the benefits in terms of the knowledge acquired in an evaluation with grades are "scarce" and "very short term", while with a pass or fail system students gain in mental health and satisfaction.

The 40,000 students who have studied two years of baccalaureate in the middle of the pandemic have already begun the university entrance exams of Catalonia (PAU). And they have done so not only marked by security measures -again, masks and distance when taking the exams-, but also in full controversy over the decision of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia, which when there were less than 24 hours for the tests ordered the Generalitat to give the same treatment to Spanish and Aranese in the exams.

The university entrance exams in Catalonia remain unchanged. The Catalan Ministry of Research and Universities assures that it fully fulfills th precautionary measures of the TSJC, that obliges them to offer the exams in the three co-official languages. Therefore, it has stated that there will not be more changes than that of "reinforcing the communication" to inform on the range of languages avaliable. Beyond this, the test by default will continue to be in Catalan, as the "vehicular language" of the school system. This has been has defended by the Catalan minister Gemma Geis, who in an emergency appearance criticized the "interferences" of justice that attacked the "consensus of the country" in the university and linguistic model. "This exam cannot be touched", she proclaimed.

The days of the current selectividad (university entrance exams) are numbered. Whether they will be few or many depends on the department of education and the universities, but for the moment the former seem determined to reform the current university entrance system. "We won't be able to hold out much longer with the current selectividad. The current university entrance exams (PAU) are unsustainable", said the Minister of Education, Josep Bargalló. The bachillerato (A-levels), said Bargalló, is the level of education that has remained most on the fringes of the wave of educational transformation that has shaken the education system in recent years, and this has meant that two entire academic years are conditioned by an exam. "The bachillerato has a corset called PAU", he said, and reviewed the grievances: he said that it is an exam that has "nothing to do with" skills-based work, that is based on "the old memorised study" and that "causes anxiety" to students. Despite the "reticence" that exists, the Education Ministry assures us that we are getting closer and closer to reforming this stage of education.