Valencian wins by a narrow margin in the consultation on language in classrooms
50.53% of families choose Catalan as their vehicular language compared to 49.47% who choose Spanish
ValenciaValencian wins a narrow victory in the consultation on the language in the classroom: 50.53% of families have opted for Catalan as the majority language of instruction. 49.47% of parents have chosen Castilian. The consultation had a participation of 58.61% and an abstention of 41.39%. This was detailed on Thursday by the regional minister for Education, Universities, Culture and Sports of the Generalitat Valenciana, José Antonio Rovira, at a press conference.
According to the data presented, in terms of provinces, the demarcation where families chose Valencian the most was Castellón, with 70.50% of the votes, followed by Valencia (57.84%). In last place was Alicante, with 34.11% of the votes.
If we analyse the regions, those where Catalan has been the majority option have been Castellón's Alt Maestrat (94.71%) and Els Ports (93.20%), followed by Alicante's Comtat (87.63%). These are, however, sparsely populated territories. On the other hand, those regions where Castilian has been the majority are Vega Baja – where only 4.75% of families have opted for Valencian – or Plana de Utiel-Requena (7.04%). These are two of the eight regions where the voluntary nature of studying the subject of Valencian remains due to an exemption in force since 1983 that was defined at the time as temporary.
The survey also allows us to observe differences between the main cities. Catalan has been chosen by 36.14% of families in Valencia, 40.25% in Elche and 61.90% in Castellón de la Plana. In Alicante, it was chosen by 16.93% of families. Also noteworthy are the cases of Orihuela, with 1.95%, and Torrevieja, with 2.16%. On the other hand, in Gandia 70.81% of families prefer Valencian as a language for their vehicles, in Xàtiva 69.46% and in Alcoy 59.66%.
In terms of levels, the choice of Valencian is reduced as the educational stage progresses. Thus, it was chosen by 53.81% of families in early childhood education, by 50.68% in primary education and by 47.10% in secondary education.
What has been chosen?
Families in public and private schools have had to choose the language of instruction that will be used in the classroom from the next academic year onwards. However, there are differences.
In most of the Valencian Community, at the infant stage, the chosen language (Catalan or Spanish) may reach a maximum of 65% of the teaching time, with a minimum of 25% for the other co-official language and 10% for English. In the case of primary, secondary and high school, English will occupy between 15% and 25%. At these three stages, the difference in the language of instruction between Valencian and Spanish must exceed 20% and no language may be used for less than 25%.
On the contrary,in the eight regionsWhere Catalan has historically had little presence and where the study of Valencian remains voluntary –alleging a low historical presence–, in the infant stage Valencian and English will occupy 10% of the time, while in primary, secondary and high school Catalan will be optional. On the contrary, English will represent between 15% and 25% of the hours.
"Most families will see their choice respected"
Once the results are known, one of the main unknowns left by the consultation is whether the regional ministry will respect the option chosen by the families, taking advantage of the fact that almost half of the families have not voted and, therefore, have not shown any preference.
When asked about this, the general director of Language Policy, Ignacio Martínez, announced that in those centres where there is a minimum of two classes, this will be respected in "almost all" cases. As he acknowledged, the difficulty will occur in smaller centres with only one classroom per level, where the majority option will prevail.