He assures that “the Catalan is not in danger” and that it is “very strange” that the Generalitat does not provide them with concrete data
The MEP and president of the delegation of MEPs that has visited Catalonia to analyze linguistic immersion, Yana Toom (Renew Europe, Estonia), has questioned the effectiveness of the model, giving as an example the poor results of Catalonia in the PISA 2022 report, while who has criticized the fact that they have been called “racists and fascists”.
This was stated this Wednesday by the MEP in a press conference at the European Parliament Office in Barcelona after the three-day visit that the delegation made to different Catalan schools to check the functioning of linguistic immersion, where they asked why no one is looking for a model for Catalonia that works.
After stating that “Catalan is not in danger”, the MEP has expressed her doubts about the effectiveness of the linguistic immersion model, citing the poor results of Catalonia in the PISA 2022 report: “It does not work very well, but the curious thing is that no one is looking for another model in Catalonia”.
Toom recalled that Catalonia is not the only territory “in which this problem exists on the planet” and has given the example of his native country, Estonia, where he affirms that there is a fairly large Russian-speaking community and that the parents of these children can request that they do some classes in Russian on the side.
Likewise, he recalled that during his visit to Catalonia these days he went to the Sagrada Familia, where there was information “all Japanese, Chinese and English”, but “no Spanish”. However, he has acknowledged that he does not have day-to-day experience and that this fact “has nothing to do with the conclusions of the report.”
After regretting that the delegation has been accused of coming with a predetermined idea, the MEP said that this is not true and regretted that they have been called “racists and fascists.”
On the other hand, she has criticized that during the visits to the educational centers an inspector from the Department of Education came who had no proof that he was going to come, and has maintained that, for her, this “is not a free exchange of opinions between schools and it doesn’t help at all.”
For the conclusions, the delegation has assured that they will also request data on how many families have gone to court to request teaching in Spanish, and has defended that they will “make the effort to have a very complete report.”
SEE “EXTREMELY RARE” THE ATTITUDE OF THE GENERALITAT
Toom has assured that it is “very strange” that the Generalitat does not give figures of how many students receive 25% of their education in Spanish, even more so knowing that a delegation from the European Parliament is coming.
“We have asked how many students in general in Catalonia receive 25% of their education in Spanish, and without an answer, which is very strange if they know that a delegation from the European Parliament is coming,” he detailed, indicating that they end the meeting with “some questions without answers”.
However, he has advanced that “it is too early” for the group of MEPs who have been in Catalonia since Monday to draw conclusions, since he believes that they lack data, and that they will prepare a report that will be presented and voted on in the Committee on Requests from the European Parliament in about 3 months.
During the three-day visit, they went to two educational centers in El Prat de Llobregat (Barcelona) – an institute and a special education center – and when asked about the reason for choosing these two centers, they stated that they were “decisions of the secretariat of the European Parliament, in agreement with the local authorities” and highlights that there were representatives of the Generalitat in those meetings.
Regarding the special education center, he has assured that it has a model based on total linguistic immersion, and of the institute, which applies 25% of Spanish, Toom has assured that it is an example of “successful bilingualism.”
