• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Thursday, March 23, 2023
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

A woman stocks a bathroom with free pads and tampons
World

Spain Passes Law for Europe’s First ‘Menstrual Leave’

by Staff Writer
February 17, 2023
Spain migrants
Refugees

Spain Prosecutor Opens Probe Into Melilla Migrant Deaths

by Staff Writer
June 28, 2022
Samuel Luiz
World

Two More Suspects Arrested Over Killing of Gay Man in Spain

by Staff Writer
July 9, 2021
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
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

Transgender Army veteran Tanya Walker speaks to protesters in Times Square near a military recruitment centre

Tennessee Is A Drag on the First Amendment

March 21, 2023
participants of an artificial intelligence conference

How AI Could Upend the World Even More Than Electricity or the Internet

March 19, 2023
Chinese President Xi Jinping

China’s Path to Economic Dominance

March 15, 2023
Heavily armed police inspect the area near a Jehovah's Witness church where several people have been killed in a shooting in Hamburg, northern Germany

Eight Dead in Shooting at Jehovah’s Witness Hall in Germany

March 10, 2023
Myanmar Rohingya refugees look on in a refugee camp in Teknaf, in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar, on November 26, 2016

US Announces $26M in New Aid for Rohingya

March 8, 2023
A flooded road in Batu Berendam in Malaysia's southern coastal state of Malacca

At Least Four Dead, Tens of Thousands Evacuated in Malaysia Floods

March 6, 2023

Opinion

Transgender Army veteran Tanya Walker speaks to protesters in Times Square near a military recruitment centre

Tennessee Is A Drag on the First Amendment

March 21, 2023
Chinese President Xi Jinping

China’s Path to Economic Dominance

March 15, 2023
An earthquake survivor reacts as rescuers look for victims and other survivors in Hatay, a Turkish province where hundreds of buildings were destroyed by the earthquake

Heed the Call of Our Broken World

March 1, 2023
Top view of the US House of Representatives

‘Cringy Awards:’ Who Is the Most Embarrassing US House Representative?

February 13, 2023
Protesters rally against the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols, outside of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit, Michigan, on January 27, 2023

How Do Violent ‘Monsters’ Take Root?

February 3, 2023
George Santos from the 3rd Congressional district of New York

George Santos for Speaker!

January 16, 2023
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