Catalan have warned of a "return to the Franco era" in a deepening row
over education reform that will see Castilian Spanish given the same
priority as catalan language in schools.
Jose Ignacio Wert, Spain's education minister, unveiled a
wide-reaching educational reform bill on Tuesday that demands Spanish
be used as the main teaching language for those families that choose
it. The new reform reverses a policy in place since Spain's transition
to democracy on the death of dictator Francisco Franco, that has
allowed regional languages such as Basque, Catalan, and Galician to be
given priority in schools. The proposed reform by the conservative and
spanish nationalist government of Mariano Rajoy has enraged the
independent-minded region of Catalonia, further deepening tensions
with Madrid.
The Catalan language, banned during the dictatorship, has been
promoted in schools across the northeastern region of Catalonia.
Catalonia's regional president Artur Mas, who was re-elected on
November 25 with a mandate to stage a referendum on independence from
Madrid within his next term, said his government will refuse to
implement the new directive. He and the regional Basque leader have
vowed to challenge the new law in Spain's Constitutional Court,
arguing it violates regional powers.
Meanwhile the Catalan education platform, Somescola, a collective of
parents and teachers associations, has slammed the reform and called
for its members to take to the streets in protest on December 13.
"This law takes us back to a pre-democratic past," Somescola said in a
statement. "It proposes wiping out thirty-five years of Catalan
democratic schooling". Pere Farriol, the chairman of the Federation of
Secondary School Parents Associations in Catalonia, warned that "This
attack upon Catalonia, our language and our customs cannot be
tolerated".
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/9724392/Catalans-protest-return-to-Franco-as-schools-are-told-to-teach-more-Spanish.html
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