Universities trust that the PAU syllabus will allow to avoid the veto of Catalan and Balearic authors by the Valencian government

ValenciaThat in practice the new baccalaureate curriculum is not so decisive and that the veto of Catalan and Balearic authors is partially neutralized. This is what Valencian universities are counting on: they hope that their competence in designing the entrance exams (PAU), added to a broad interpretation of some articles of the new educational decree, will allow them to avoid the sidelining of Balearic and Catalan writers promoted by the Valencian Ministry of Education. This is what members of the Catalan philology departments explained to ARA after the meeting recently held with the Director General of Educational Planning of the Generalitat, Ignacio Martínez Arrúe.

The hope of the representatives of the Jaume I University of Castellón, the University of Alicante, and the University of Valencia stems from both the regulations and the dialogue maintained with the ministry. In the legislative sphere, they highlight that the royal decree regulating access requirements to higher education states that the organizing committee of the access test "will be made up of representatives of public universities, the educational administration, and high school teachers from public centers." This is why they are confident that, given the universities' determination to maintain questions about Catalan and Balearic authors in the PAU, high schools will also consider their study necessary to prevent students from having difficulties passing them.

Along these lines, the same sources explain to ARA that the Generalitat informed them that the ministry will respect the universities' competence in designing the PAU. A commitment that the education department has confirmed to ARA. Regarding whether Education will oppose universities' access exams asking about the work of Catalan or Balearic authors, the Valencian government has been emphatic in assuring that they will respect it and in stating that their norm "aims to prioritize Valencian authors," but that it respects the autonomy of the centers, teachers, and the university.

The universities' confidence also stems from some minor changes in the decree that the Ministry of Education and Culture published for its amendment period just a week ago, taking advantage of the Easter holidays. Although the new high school curriculum removes references to the linguistic unity of Catalan from the document and limits the subject of study "to the dialects of Valencian" and authors of "Valencian literature," the universities are confident in an interpretation of the term "Valencian" as synonymous with Catalan. They base this on the definition provided by the Valencian Academy of Language itself, which defines Catalan as the "Romance language spoken in Catalonia, as well as in the Balearic Islands, the French department of the Eastern Pyrenees, the Principality of Andorra, the eastern strip of Aragon, the Sardinian city of Alghero, and the Valencian Community, where it is called Valencian."

Escola Valenciana: "It is a strategy of ideological manipulation"

In parallel with the universities' talks with the ministry, the organisation Escola Valenciana has made public a document so that any person, entity or educational centre "has a basis for presenting its own amendments to the administration". The entity values the veto on authors from other Catalan-speaking territories as a sign of "de-culturisation policies" that aim to "invisibilise the language and culture, as well as the undeniable links with other territories". According to Rosanna Martínez, president of the association, the reform does not respond to any "academic or pedagogical" motivation, but rather "is part of a clear strategy of fragmenting Catalan and ideological manipulation".