<div dir="ltr">
<header class="gmail-article-header"><h1>Spanish or Catalan? Planned school policy shift sparks anger</h1><div class="gmail-news-feed_item-meta"><div class="gmail-article-meta">
<ul class="gmail-authors">
<li><div rel="author" class="gmail-author"><span class="gmail-by-text">By</span> The Associated Press</div></li>
</ul><span class="gmail-timestamp">MADRID — Feb 16, 2018, 12:28 PM ET</span></div></div>
<ul class="gmail-article-social gmail-horizontal">
<li class="gmail-btn-social-facebook">
<a class="gmail-btn-social gmail-facebook gmail-horizontal" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fabcnews.go.com%2FInternational%2FwireStory%2Fspanish-catalan-planned-school-policy-shift-sparks-anger-53143039%3Fcid%3Dshare_facebook_widget" name="lpos=widget[share_facebook_widget]&lid=link[horizontal]">
<span class="gmail-icon-facebook"></span>
</a>
</li><li class="gmail-btn-social-twitter">
<a class="gmail-btn-social gmail-twitter gmail-horizontal" href="http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Spanish+or+Catalan%3F+Planned+school+policy+shift+sparks+anger+-+ABC+News+-+http%3A%2F%2Fabcn.ws%2F2Ey0Hxw&via=ABC" name="lpos=widget[share_twitter_widget]&lid=link[horizontal]">
<span class="gmail-icon-twitter"></span>
</a>
</li><li class="gmail-btn-social-whatsapp">
</li>
</ul></header><div class="gmail-article-body" style="min-height:164px"><ul class="gmail-article-social gmail-vertical" style="bottom: auto; top: 0px;">
<li>
<a class="gmail-btn-social gmail-facebook gmail-vertical" name="lpos=widget[share_facebook_widget]&lid=link[vertical]" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fabcnews.go.com%2FInternational%2FwireStory%2Fspanish-catalan-planned-school-policy-shift-sparks-anger-53143039%3Fcid%3Dshare_facebook_widget">
<span class="gmail-icon-facebook"></span>
</a>
</li><li>
<a class="gmail-btn-social gmail-twitter gmail-vertical" name="lpos=widget[share_twitter_widget]&lid=link[vertical]" href="http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Spanish+or+Catalan%3F+Planned+school+policy+shift+sparks+anger+-+ABC+News+-+http%3A%2F%2Fabcn.ws%2F2Ey0Hxw&via=ABC">
<span class="gmail-icon-twitter"></span>
</a>
</li><li>
</li><li class="gmail-internal gmail-send-email">
<div class="gmail-btn-social gmail-vertical">
<a class="gmail-page-action email" href="http://api.addthis.com/oexchange/0.8/forward/email/offer?url=http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/spanish-catalan-planned-school-policy-shift-sparks-anger-53143039?cid=share_addthis_widget&title=Spanish+or+Catalan%3F+Planned+school+policy+shift+sparks+anger" name="lpos=widget[share_addthis_widget]&lid=link[vertical]">
Email <span class="gmail-icon-mail"></span>
</a>
</div>
</li>
</ul><div class="gmail-article-copy">
<p>
</p><p>
Spain's conservative government is considering changes to make it easier
for parents in Catalonia to choose Spanish over Catalan as the main
language in their children's schooling.</p>
<p>
The move, if confirmed, would go against decades of regional policies
prioritizing the native Catalan language in classrooms while offering a
limited number of lessons in Spanish grammar and literature.</p>
<p>
Supporters of an education in Catalan say the current system guarantees
equal opportunities in a region where the native language is widely used
both socially and professionally.</p>
<p>
Both Catalan and Spanish are official and spoken indistinctively, but
regional and national authorities have clashed for years over which
language should be used in teaching.</p>
<p>
Although current laws allow parents to choose, the default option is
primary and secondary schooling in Catalan, with only limited numbers of
Catalan families completing applications for an education in Spanish.
University is generally taught in Catalan but students are allowed to
take tests in the language of their choice.</p>
<p>
Friday's announcement comes amid the backdrop of an unprecedented
political deadlock and after central Spanish authorities began running
affairs in the northeastern region in response to October's illegal
attempt to break away from Spain.</p>
<p>
Catalan separatists accuse the government of Spanish Prime Minister <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/topics/news/world/mariano-rajoy.htm" class="gmail-r_lapi">Mariano Rajoy</a> of taking too far its temporary powers over the region.</p>
<p>
"We will do it without doubt," Education Minister Inigo Mendez de Vigo
said Friday, referring to the proposed changes in education. "The right
of parents to choose the working language for their children is very
important."</p>
<p>
Catalan separatist politicians and some of the opposition parties at the
national level reject the move. Former regional leader Carles
Puigdemont wrote a tweet saying that the Spanish government "feeds
Spanish nationalism with its right hand and tries to divide Catalan
students based on their language."</p>
<p>
Puigdemont has been named as the separatists' candidate to form a new government in Catalonia but he can't return from <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/topics/news/belgium.htm" class="gmail-r_lapi">Belgium</a>
without facing arrest. He fled to Brussels in October to avoid a
judicial investigation into his former cabinet's independence push.</p>
<p>
Rajoy, who rejects Puigdemont as Catalan leader, has vowed to keep
running the region from Madrid until a new legal and effective
government is formed in Catalonia. But that process remains in a limbo
amid legal hurdles and factional infighting within the separatist
parties.</p>
<p>
Friday's announcement was seen by many as a warning shot by central
authorities to separatists, urging them to form a government without
Puigdemont in order to recover Catalonia's self-government and avoid
further reforms in the region's policies.</p>
<p>
But Mendez de Vigo, who also acts as the government's spokesman, rejected that claim.</p>
<p>
"This is only a measure on behalf of the right of parents to choose
which language they want their children to be taught in," he said.
"Nothing else."</p>
</div>
</div>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
</div>