Valencian wins by a narrow margin in the consultation on language in classrooms

ValenciaValencian has won by a narrow margin in the consultation on the language in the classrooms after 50.53% of families have opted for Catalan as the majority language of instruction, compared to 49.47% who have chosen Castilian. All this with a participation of 58.61% and an abstention of 41.39%. This was detailed this afternoon by the Minister of Education, Universities, Culture and Sports, José Antonio Rovira, in a press conference.

As for provinces, the demarcation where families have chosen Valencian the most has been Castellón with 70.50% of the cases, followed by Valencia with 57.84%. Finally, there was Alicante, with 34.11%.

If we analyse the regions, those where Catalan has been the majority choice have been the Castellón region of Alt Maestrat with 94.71% and Els Ports with 93.20%, followed by the Alicante region of Comtat with 87.63%. They are, however, sparsely populated territories. On the other hand, those regions where Castilian has been the majority choice are the Vega Baja, where only 4.75% of families have opted for Valencian, or the Plana de Utiel-Requena with 7.04%. These are two of the eight regions where the voluntary nature of the study of the subject of Valencian is maintained due to an exemption in force since 1983 that was defined at the time as temporary.

Looking at the main cities, Catalan has been chosen by 36.14% of families in Valencia, compared to 16.93% in Alicante, 40.25% in Elche and 61.90% in Castellón de la Plana. Also noteworthy are the cases of Orihuela with 1.95% and Torrevieja with 2.16%. On the other hand, Gandia has 70.81% of families who prefer Valencian as a language, Xàtiva with 69.46% and Alcoy with 59.66%.

As for levels, the choice of Valencian is reduced as the educational stage progresses. Thus, it was chosen by 53.81% of families in pre-school, by 50.68% in primary and by 47.10% in secondary.

What was 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, in early childhood education, 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 primary, secondary and high school, English will occupy between 15% and 25%. In 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, citing 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 occupy between 15 and 25%.

"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. Asked about this, the director general 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 has recognised, the difficulty will occur in smaller centres with only one classroom per level where the majority option will prevail.

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