Catalonia Expands Arabic Education, Sparks Debate Over Language Priorities in Schools

According to data from the Ministry of Education, 138 public centers teach the Arabic language and culture as part of a "program whose pilot phase was launched during the 2018-2019 school year". "Thanks to this program, primary and secondary school students learn the Arabic language and increase their knowledge of Moroccan culture," explains the Catalan government, stressing that "the initiative also contributes to developing the school and sociocultural integration of students of Moroccan origin".

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Associations for the defense of Spanish in Catalan classrooms do not approve of this school program that penalizes young people enrolled in public schools. They are not against the teaching of a non-official language like Arabic in Catalonia, but rather denounce the fact that these young people cannot receive courses such as mathematics, social sciences, natural sciences, religion, artistic education or physical education in Spanish.

"Teaching a foreign language is not bad in itself, but if at the same time Spanish is relegated to second place as a linguistic subject and as a vehicular language, the authorities show their fanaticism and their evil," explains to Ok Diario, Gloria Lago, president of the Hablemos Español association. She denounces an "exclusion" of the Spanish language and regrets that students do not have the opportunity to acquire knowledge in their mother tongue.

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In the same vein, Ana Losada, president of the Assembly for a Bilingual School of Catalonia, also supports the fact that the problem does not arise since they are voluntary classes, but notes that it is inconsistent "that the school in Catalonia promotes languages that are not official and that the official languages, such as Spanish, are deliberately excluded from teaching in public schools". This "extremely serious" and "totally illegal" situation "violates the rights of learners," she adds, regretting that "Spanish, the official and majority language, is excluded from education".

The two leaders agree that the solution lies in the officialization of the two languages. "In all countries with more than one official language on their territory, linguistic co-officiality applies, which allows choosing a language for teaching. This is what we propose at Hablemos Español," suggests Lago.