New High Court ruling imposes 25% of classes in Spanish in school in Cubelles

BarcelonaTwenty days after the ruling that set a minimum of 25% of classes in Spanish for a group of five-year-olds at the Escola Turó del Drac in Canet, a new ruling by the Catalan High Court sets the same percentage for the Escola Vora del Mar in Cubelles by partially accepting the complaint by a student's family which requested, as the family in Canet did, schooling in Catalan and Spanish in equal parts.

In the ruling, the High Court recognises the child "and all their classmates'" right to receive an education "that includes Spanish as a classroom language in a reasonable proportion", which is set at 25%. According to the text, this means that in addition to Spanish as a subject, all the hours of another "core" subject will have to be taught in this language. As it has done on previous occasions, the High Court has annulled the school's entire linguistic project "since it does not contemplate the classroom use of Spanish as an official language together with Catalan".

In fact, the Assembly for a Bilingual School (AEB), which advised the family in Cubelles, boasted of having managed to overturn 7 language projects this year. The first sentences in this sense came in March this year and the anti-immersion organisation warned that they had "historical significance" because they forced a change to "all language projects in public schools in Catalonia, which in 95% of cases only establish that Catalan is the teaching language". Some time ago, the same entity assured that no public school in Catalonia teaches 25% of its classes in Spanish, based on a study it carried out after getting the Generalitat itself to ask centres to send their linguistic project to this anti-immersion entity.

The ruling against the school in Cubelles comes at a time of maximum tension for Catalan in the classroom. First, because the Spanish Supreme Court overturned an appeal by the Generalitat against a ruling Catalan High Court ruling that imposed a 25% presence of Spanish in the classroom, which makes this ruling firm and, therefore, requires all Catalan schools to teach 25% of classes in Spanish. Secondly, because of the Canet case, which has been used for partisan interests and has caused a political confrontation between all parties, even between the coalition partners. And thirdly, because all this has forced the Catalan Government to move and to announce that it will update the linguistic model in classrooms, avoiding setting specific percentages.