Feim Pinya, the network of schools in Mallorca "for public, inclusive, quality education in Catalan," is launched.

PalmThe Balearic Islands Teachers' Assembly presented Feim Pinya this Thursday, the network of Catalan-language schools in Mallorca "for a public, inclusive, quality school in Catalan." This initiative was created with the aim of creating a community in which to share tools, strategies, and successful experiences in teaching in Catalan, according to the organization's social media accounts.

In this way, teachers aim to create a training space, with regular meetings of professionals to share strategies, methodologies, resources, materials, and successful experiences in teaching in Catalan. The network aims to reach teachers of any subject or stage and all members of the educational community committed to public, inclusive, quality schools in Catalan.

In itFeim Pinya manifestoTeachers emphasize that "the future is built from school" and that "defending schools in Catalan means defending an educational model committed to the social and cultural reality of Mallorca." In this sense, the members of Feim Pinya want a school where children and young people, regardless of their origin, "can live together, learn together, and fully integrate into Mallorcan society."

Furthermore, they emphasize that the language immersion methodology is backed by decades of experience and numerous pedagogical and sociolinguistic studies from around the world, ensures communicative competence in both official languages, and enables students to establish a connection with and recognize the language of the territory.

Regarding the linguistic emergency on the Islands, the members of Feim Pinya reiterate the importance of strengthening the social use of Catalan, at a time when its use in schools is also declining. And they explain that one of the factors that contributed to this situation was the Bauzá government's elimination of the "Linguistic Immersion Service, which trained teachers and supported them in the implementation of pedagogical strategies that ensure communicative competence in Catalan." "We teachers need to recover these strategies, since today this training has not been undertaken by the Faculty of Education or any other entity," they denounce.

Thus, the educational community faces a major collective challenge. Therefore, they demand that the authorities and political institutions clearly commit to an educational model with Catalan as the vehicular language at all stages, promote positive linguistic attitudes toward the use of Catalan, reverse policies that weaken the use of Catalan in schools, and restore the Catalan Teaching Service and the support programs for language teaching, linguistic awareness, and reception run by the Ministry of Education and the UIB.

The official presentation of the new educational network will take place on September 23rd, after which there will be seminars, meetings, talks, and training sessions to join a common cause and fight for "quality education in Catalan in the Balearic Islands." All teachers, schools, and members of the educational community can join this network in defense of the Catalan language in education in the Balearic Islands using QR codes, like the one in the image below.