• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Tuesday, January 19, 2021
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Opinion

Catalonia’s Education System: Indoctrination, Victimization, and Linguistic ‘Spies’

Carlos Conde Solares by Carlos Conde Solares
07/26/19
in Opinion
A high school classroom

Photo: Martin Bureau, AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

“My daughter was crying inconsolably when she left school on Monday,” said Lourdes, the mother of a ten-year-old girl who was reportedly attacked by her teacher at her school near Barcelona in Spain’s autonomous community of Catalonia.

The events took place last month after the girl wrote “Viva España” and scribbled a Spanish flag in her class’ end of year album. Her teacher took her by the shoulders and shook her, making her fall, then grabbed her by the neck and dragged her out of the classroom.

Lourdes’ daughter was discharged from the hospital with a prescription for painkillers to manage injuries to her back and hands, but psychological scars remain for a child who does not understand what she did wrong. After the traumatic experience, she does not ever want to return to school.

Decentralization of Spain’s Education System

When the education system was decentralized to Spain’s autonomous communities towards the end of the 20th century, the Catalan nationalist establishment saw schools as crucial to nation-building, establishing the (still ongoing) Programa 2000. This was a public policy strategy based on one non-negotiable premise: the presence of Spain, as an inclusive state, as a pluralistic culture, and even as part of a global linguistic community, was going to be squeezed out of Catalan life for good.

In its place, nationalist policy-makers imposed a program of linguistic and cultural “immersion.” Its socio-political consequences were easily predictable. Conveniently, they included the perpetuation of nationalist rule in a community that self-governs every aspect of public life – apart from borders and airports.

Such monopoly of public resources, media, schools, and institutions brought with it a lack of democratic scrutiny that allowed systemic corruption to fester, unchallenged, under the threat of being branded an “enemy of Catalonia” by the all-controlling and ever-present regional administration and its many satellites.

Nationalist Pressure

Carles Puigdemont, president of Catalonia
Former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont in 2016. Photo: Generalitat de Catalunya

When it came to teaching staff, the “selection” process was helpfully streamlined: while Catalan speakers could apply for a vacancy anywhere in Spain, only speakers of Catalan are likely to apply for vacancies in Catalonia. The effects of the policy were mutually reinforcing: attracting a carefully defined educational profile to the teaching profession; contributing to the departure of “uncomfortable” professionals; and ensuring that the focus of the Catalan education system remained militantly localistic, exempt from Spanish “contamination.”

This Big Brother-style dystopia includes “linguistic spies” in school playgrounds, tasked with eavesdropping on children’s conversations to detect Spanish speakers.

Nationalist pressure presents itself at every stage of education: in the most recent university access exams, invigilators only issued students with the Catalan version of the exam. Despite being entitled to both and to choosing which one to attempt, candidates who preferred the Spanish script were forced to raise their hand and ask for it in examination halls hosting hundreds of fellow students. Invigilators were instructed to take note of their names and to mark such requests as an “incident” in their reports.

Educating ‘Purer’ Catalans

The exclusionary ambitions of the nationalist elites run even deeper. The Catalan government’s exercise in social engineering needed to be more profound to educate “purer” Catalans. For instance, the working classes of Barcelona’s “red belt” remained unwavering in their dual identity as bilingual Catalans and Spaniards. They kept voting accordingly too, despite being grossly underrepresented by an electoral system that favors the rural vote from the predominantly nationalist villages of Gerona and Lérida.

People wave pro-independence Catalan flags 'Esteladas' while holding letters reading 'independence' during a pro-independence demonstration in Barcelona, Spain
On September 11, 2018, around one million Catalans rallied in Barcelona in a show of support for independence nearly a year after a failed attempt to break away from Spain. Photo: AFP

Overall, however, the majority of Catalonia’s society felt comfortable in their own skin and did not wish to be stripped of any of the layers that made them who they were.

History of Catalonia

Francisco Oya is one such Catalan. Oya is a professor of history at the Joan Boscà college in Barcelona. In January 2019, following a secretive investigation, he was sentenced to ten months of unpaid suspension by the Catalan education authorities. When Oya asked the inspector about the reasons for his “gross misconduct,” he was told that the class materials that he used “made Catalan nationalists look bad.”

These complementary materials were extracted from two prestigious academic publications: Racismo y xenofobia en el nacionalismo catalán and La raza catalana. These volumes rightly contextualize the origins of Catalan and other nationalisms in race-based theories of the 19th century. They were entirely pertinent when explaining the history of modern and contemporary Catalonia, as perhaps best illustrated by the current incumbent of the Catalan government, Quim Torra, in his supremacist tirades against Spanish-speaking children.

In 2015, Oya wrote a painstakingly rigorous report about the Catalan History curriculum. In it, he exposed hundreds of cases of manipulation, deliberate omission, and false facts. These ranged from consciously avoiding the term “Hispania” when referring to the Iberian Roman Empire to anachronistically referring to Catalonia as far back as in the Pre-History section of the syllabus. In the medieval and modern history chapters, all historical events were presented as a confrontation between virtuous, civilized Catalans, and oppressive, ignorant and violent Spaniards, often visually illustrated with grotesque caricatures.

#AcosoEscolar El acoso escolar está empezando a ser un problema grave en Cataluña. No sólo hay acoso de alumnos a alumnos (lo habitual). Empezamos a tener acoso de profesores a alumnos (IES El Palau) y acoso de la administración educativa a docentes (IES Joan Boscà). pic.twitter.com/VUWDPyQhFR

— Francisco Oya (@FranciscoOya1) May 2, 2018

Francisco Oya has suffered demonstrations attended by his own colleagues, as well as countless threats and insults. He was one of the teachers sharing their harrowing experiences at the U.N.’s Human Rights Commission in Geneva earlier this month. These teachers reported how studying in Spanish in the Catalan education system is now impossible for most. Ignoring judicial rulings, the Catalan authorities deny the right to bilingual education to those students who request it.

Eye-opening studies by the Assembly for a Bilingual School in Catalonia detail how parents who want their children to study in their mother tongue are singled out, isolated, and targeted with institutional bullying. Ultimately, they are often condemned to either putting up with the status quo, to the detriment of their child’s academic performance, or to leave Catalonia altogether, a “solution” that has seen a significant internal movement of people over the past few decades.

Many, as happened to Lourdes’ daughter, leave their land in tears.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of The Globe Post.
ShareTweet
Carlos Conde Solares

Carlos Conde Solares

Senior Lecturer in Hispanic Studies, Northumbria University, Newcastle

Related Posts

Catalan students hold a banner reading "For an education to serve the Catalan people".
Opinion

‘Enough Is Enough:’ Ideological Harassment in Catalan Universities

by Carlos Conde Solares
September 4, 2020
Carrie Lam press conference in Hong Kong
World

Hong Kong Reimposes Social Distancing as Global Cases Continue to Rise

by Alexandra Marquez
July 14, 2020
People wave pro-independence Catalan flags 'Esteladas' while holding letters reading 'independence' during a pro-independence demonstration in Barcelona, Spain
Featured

Spain’s New Government to Tackle Catalonia via Negotiation

by Staff Writer
January 13, 2020
Women hold Spanish, Catalan, and European flags during a demonstration against Catalonia's independence in front of the European Parliament building in Strasbourg
Opinion

Playing with Fire: EU Must Be Careful of Fanning Euroscepticism in Spain

by Ojel L. Rodriguez
January 7, 2020
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of the Socialist Party (PSOE) waves to supporters during a campaign rally in Barcelona.
Featured

Spain’s Sanchez Forms Leftist Coalition, Vows to Fight Inequality

by Staff Writer
January 7, 2020
Catalan separatist President Quim Torra
Interviews

Catalan President: Catalonia’s Crisis Is Problem of Democracy

by Thomas Harrington
January 7, 2020
Next Post
League leader Matteo Salvini

Salvini Demands Europe Take Migrants Held by Italy Coastguard

The 8-year-old Mark (L) and 9-year-old Lehor from Eastern Ukraine in the boxing ring, where they help rebuild personal relations

In Eastern Ukraine, Children Box to Heal the Wounds of War

Recommended

Medical personnel is given the Pfizer-Biontech Covid-19 corona virus vaccine at the Favoriten Clinic in Vienna, Austria, on December 27, 2020

The Vaccine Battle Highlights the Need to Communicate Science

January 19, 2021
Beggars

Rights Court Condemns Switzerland for Fining Beggar

January 19, 2021
Central African Republic's Faustin Archange Touadéra.

Two UN Troops Killed in C. Africa as President’s Re-election Confirmed

January 19, 2021
Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny.

UN Rights Office Urges Navalny’s Immediate Release

January 18, 2021
The filing was submitted by Justice Department lawyers on Thursday, January 14.

US Rioters Sought to ‘Capture and Assassinate’ Lawmakers at Capitol: Prosecutors

January 15, 2021
Biden proposes raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Biden Unveils $1.9 Tn Economic Plan as US Recovery Buckles

January 14, 2021

Opinion

Medical personnel is given the Pfizer-Biontech Covid-19 corona virus vaccine at the Favoriten Clinic in Vienna, Austria, on December 27, 2020

The Vaccine Battle Highlights the Need to Communicate Science

January 19, 2021
President Donald Trump in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House.

Threatening Democracy: The Choice Between Progress and Extremism Has Never Been So Clear

January 13, 2021
Jake Angeli speaks to a US Capitol Police officer.

American Democracy Will Prevail

January 13, 2021
Pro-Trump protester in front of Capitol Hill.

Riots at Capitol Hill: Darkness Before the Dawn?

January 8, 2021
Volunteers are given the Moderna vaccine on August 5, 2020, in Detroit, Michigan.

Who’s First-in-Line for the Vaccine? A Classic Problem in Medical Ethics

December 30, 2020
A sorghum farmer inspects her small grains crop thriving in the dry conditions in March in the Mutoko rural area of Zimbabwe

The 10-Year Food Systems Revolution Must Start Now

December 22, 2020
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post