Generalitat to employ school children as ‘linguistic co-ordinators’

The tripartite government of the Generalitat de Catalunya has created the role of ‘linguistic co-ordinator’ in order to ensure that Catalan is spoken in school classrooms. The co-ordinator will be a pupil who will have the specific mission of noting in a document the language used by each teacher.

The new role was revealed in today’s edition of El Mundo, which exposed the Generalitat’s planning in implementing a project to weaken Spanish for teaching purposes.

One of the first acts of the Government has consisted of asking the school children, through the linguistic co-ordinator, about intercultural and social cohesion in their centre of study, what language is being used during their activities whilst in class, in what proportion the language is being used and which language is being used by the teacher for presenting oral explanations.

Once teaching in Catalan at the primary education level (or ‘Educación Primaria’) had been achieved, attention has now focused to children studying at the secondary level (or ‘Educación Secundaria’). Some groups have complained that the Generalitat is also acting at the pre-higher education level (or ‘Bachillerato’).

According to Generalitat statistics, between 30% and 40% of teachers in the region teaching at these levels continue to use Spanish in their explanations to children.

To fulfil the 1998 linguistic law (Ley de Política Lingüística de 1998), which establishes that the unique language to be used throughout obligatory education levels in Catalonia is Catalan, the Generalitat has distributed to teaching institutions throughout the region a questionnaire which has the objective of finding out which language is being used in school classroom activities.

The measurement of language use represents one of the first acts of the linguistic co-ordinators, in respect of the cultural mix and social cohesion within teaching centres in the region, or as described by sectors opposing the standardisation of classroom language, the ‘linguistic police inspectors’.

Some teachers believe that the creation of a linguistic co-ordinator will lead to the punishment of teachers who do not yield to the language orthodoxy of the region.

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