The TSJIB once again rejects the imposition of 25% of teaching in Spanish in classrooms

PalmThe Balearic Islands High Court (TSJB) has once again rejected the imposition of a 25% Spanish-language instruction requirement in classrooms. The court dismissed an appeal from a father who requested that his son receive at least 25% of his classes in Spanish at a school in Palma. In its ruling, issued a few weeks ago, the court stated that parents "have the right to choose the school, but not to impose a specific percentage of the language in a particular school."

In this regard, the plaintiff requested that his son take a core subject taught in Spanish and that this measure be extended to the rest of the students at the school. The petition argues that the School Language Project (PLC) violates the Constitution and contradicts the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court regarding the Catalan education system. The Court rejects this argument, pointing out that the Balearic education system does not prohibit a binary model, nor does it in Catalonia under the Catalan Statute of Autonomy, a matter that has been the subject of jurisprudence by the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court. Therefore, the parent's example lacks legal basis.

"The purported imposition that 25% of core subjects be taught using Spanish as the language of instruction no longer has the support of being the only means of complying with the rulings of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court," the High Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands (TSJIB) points out in its ruling. Furthermore, it recalls that regional regulations (which the plaintiff ignores throughout the legal arguments of the appeal) guarantee competence in both official languages without the need to establish fixed percentages, and there is no regulation that requires 25% of classes to be taught in Spanish.

The Court legitimizes the linguistic model in classrooms

The High Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands (TSJIB) understands that the Education Law is constitutional and guarantees educational development for Spanish speakers. It also emphasizes that "parents have the right to choose a school but not to impose the percentage of Spanish language use within a specific school's language plan." In this regard, it notes that the school the father sued has the recognized right to develop its language project according to its social and educational context, under the supervision of the Education Inspectorate, and denies that this harms the learning of Spanish. However, the ruling does not order the plaintiff to pay costs, considering that there was some confusion between the jurisprudence affecting Catalonia and that affecting the Balearic Islands regarding language models.