Almost half of families do not participate in the consultation on Valencian in classrooms

ValenciaThe consultation on the language of instruction in classrooms in the Valencian Community, which was carried out during the last week, has achieved a participation of 58.61% of families and an abstention of 41.39%. Specifically, in primary school the participation is around 60% and in secondary school, 50%. This is significant data, given that the consultation, held online, will be key in defining which will be the majority language of instruction. In total, 339,411 families have participated and the result, which the Ministry of Education has not wanted to give yet, will be applied from the 2025-2026 academic year.

According to the department, the regions where there has been the most participation are those where Catalan is the majority language: Comtat (73.28%), l'Alcoià (70.21%), Els Ports (67.26%), Vall d'Albaida (66.99%) and Costera (6, 8.4%). There has also been significant participation in regions that are between the Valencian and Castilian domain areas, such as Baix Vinalopó (62.49%) and Vinalopó Mitjà (62.27%).

On the other hand, the regions where participation has been the lowest have been in Hoya de Buñol (45.17%), Vega Baja (46.70%) and Rincón de Ademuz (38.32%). These are three of the eight regions in which Catalan has historically had little presence and the voluntary nature of the study of the Valencian subject is maintained. In fact, PP and Vox have eliminated the vehicular use of 25% of Catalan introduced in 2018.

As for provinces, the Castellón demarcation registered the highest participation, with 59.81%, followed by Valencia with 58.81% and Alicante with 5. Regarding the distribution by levels, the highest participation has been that of families of infant students, which has stood at 65.92%. In primary, the overall participation has been 61.27% and in secondary, 50%.

The regional minister for Education, Culture, Universities and Employment, José Antonio Rovira, has argued that "participation represents a very important step forward in the representation of families in these decision-making processes, compared to the current situation, in which the representation of families in the school councils that set these programmes is 6 times lower, 10-11%, 11.41% in public schools and 9.31% in private schools)."

"Total lack of transparency is unacceptable"

This Wednesday, the Education Department has not clarified what percentage of families have opted for Valencian as the base language and which have chosen Castilian. These data will not be made public until a few days from now. On Thursday, each school will publish the data for its centre, although this will not yet allow us to know for sure whether the language choice made by the families has been met. The rule that regulates the consultation establishes that when a family does not vote, the student "will be automatically assigned to one or another base language by the educational centre"; something that, according to the Valencian government, will facilitate meeting the demand of those who have voted.

The Families for Valencian platform has criticised what they consider to be an "unacceptable total lack of transparency" by the department due to the fact that the results of the vote were not given on Tuesday. They also denounce "the lack of democratic guarantees" that the entire procedure has had and defend that "the low participation" is a failure of the department.

Territorial differences

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, it will only be introduced if there is "sufficient" demand, a circumstance that the entities that promote the use of Catalan consider unlikely "due to the stigmatization of the language carried out for years by the right."