The Catalan proficiency of some students in the Balearic Islands: "Some people only say 'yes' and 'no'"
Teachers from a public school, a private school, and a high school warn of the great decline of the language in the classroom.
PalmThe situation of Catalan in the classroom is complicated, something that ARA Baleares has explained on numerous occasions. Among other measures, the Ministry of Education has opened the door to teachers who do not meet the language requirements, and in some cases do not even know the language, to enter the teaching profession, and has agreed to modify the LEIB (Ley de Institución Educativa de la Educación) to make Spanish the vehicular language. All this occurs in a context in which the results of the IAQSE tests show an unprecedented decline in students' Catalan proficiency, much greater than that experienced in Spanish and other subjects. According to tests carried out in the 2023-2024 academic year, 49% of 4th grade students achieved acceptable proficiency. In Catalan, a decrease of 10 points compared to the previous edition. In Secondary Education, proficiency also declined, from 64% to 59% of students with normal proficiency. During the presentation of the Shock plan for the Catalan language of the STEIThree teachers from different fields spoke to explain how they perceive the linguistic reality in the classroom, which they all described as worrying. Below are their testimonies.
Ismael Pelegrí, Catalan teacher at the IES Joan Ramis i Ramis (Maó)
"Menorca is always presented as the island where everything is going better, but that's not entirely true. I teach a compulsory secondary education course with 25 students, and only two or three have Catalan as their mother tongue," he explains. The teacher assures that, although students often finish with a similar level in both official languages, "some now only say 'yes' and 'no'."
Management teams are not always aware of the importance of promoting the language: "This year we received the timetables in Spanish," laments Pelegrí. "Menorca is not an oasis," he adds. According to him, it is necessary to ensure that the school is a space where the language "is omnipresent." "We must reverse the dynamics and prejudices regarding the language, because otherwise, organically, Spanish is the only language used in interpersonal relationships," he adds.
Jaume Oliver, teacher at Colegio Pío XII
His testimony doesn't inspire optimism either. "The process of linguistic substitution is leading us to disappear as a people. The difficulty students have in producing texts is enormous. The language of communication is Spanish, and they translate in their own way. In Spanish, they make five mistakes and in Catalan, 20," he explains.
This reality has been widely denounced by the educational community, especially at a time when the government has taken measures that represent a regression in Catalan-language schools. Although regulations establish that students must graduate with the same level of proficiency in both official languages, this is rarely the case in practice. Proficiency in Spanish is far superior. "The Minimum Decree has become obsolete; Catalan must be 100% vehicular. For it to be less so is suicidal, because the language has lost the little prestige it had regained during the post-Franco era," Oliver points out.
Joana Maria Mas, director of CEIP Ses Rotes Velles (Santa Ponça)
"The type of student body we serve has changed. Before, we had Spanish-speaking families, and that made it easier to work in Catalan because they shared similar foundations. They were very happy for their children to learn another language. Nowadays, we have families who speak very diverse languages, and it's harder to teach the language," he explains.
The director also questions the lack of language awareness among new teachers arriving from university. "Most are Spanish speakers and struggle to maintain their position as linguistic reference points in Catalan. In my time, they sold the Regional Ministry's Immersion Kits and explained to us teachers how to teach the language. Now, this service is no longer available, and new teachers don't know how," she explains. Mas explains a common situation: "In my area, there are families who know they can live perfectly well in English, which makes them prefer their children to learn Spanish rather than Catalan. In Santa Ponça, speaking Catalan is of no use." Regarding the IAQSE results, she is blunt: "They are catastrophic."