In the Valencian Parliament, the new conservative president, Carlos Mazon, may alternate between Castilian and Valencian, while he lists the various points of his investiture program, on July 13, he does not manage to dispel the fears of the defenders of Valencian of seeing the teaching in the Valencian regional language in schools called into question..
The coalition agreement signed between the People’s Party (PP, right) and the extreme right Vox in the Valencia region, as in the Balearic Islands, provides, in fact, for the abolition of the body responsible for the protection of the language, considered a “linguistic police” by the right. PP and Vox claim the right of parents to “choose the language” in which their children are educated. “We expect very complicated years, but we will not allow a step backwards in the teaching of Valencian, warns Alexandra Uso, president of the Escola Valenciana association. Its social use is diluted, teenagers speak it little and we have only one medium, A punt, in our language. Spanish, for us, is a language of oppression. »
“Spanish has been the dominant language since the end of the 18th century.e century and what makes no sense is that Valencian is imposed on children whose mother tongue is Castilian, that they are penalized academically and that the level in certain subjects drops because the lessons are given in Valencian”considers, for his part, Miguel Angel Robles, spokesperson for the platform School for All, which defends education in Castilian.
Campaign theme
Between the two positions, it is difficult to find a consensus. Until 2018, a balance had been found thanks to a system divided into two lines of education: either in Spanish with Valencian language lessons or in Valencian with Spanish language lessons. That year, however, the coalition government between the Socialist Party and the regionalists of the Compromise movement approved a law to“unify the education system”, recalls the former regional minister in charge of education Vicent Marza. “For all establishments, it has since been compulsory to give at least 25% of classes in Castilian, 25% in Valencian and 10% in English. The remaining 40% are then decided in each school according to the sociological context. » When it was approved, thousands of people, mainly defenders of Spanish, took to the streets to oppose this reform, without bending the regional executive.
You have 21.81% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.