Informe: el valencià a l’ensenyament
Report on education in the Valencian language (english version)
1. Introduction
In 2011, STEPV published its report *From hindering to involution *on the state of the Valencian language in the education system. The report concluded that, despite all the years that had passed since the enactment of the Law on the Use and Teaching of Valencian (LUEV) and despite society’s increasing demand for the language, progress towards normalisation of Valencian was desperately slow.
The report also highlighted the imbalances in the way the law was applied depending on the geographical area, the type of institution (public or private), and the difficult transition between the stages of education. Southern regions of the Valencian Country, private institutions, and the later stages of education (compulsory secondary education, or ESO; sixth form education, or batxillerat; and vocational training) were veritable black holes that prevented continuity in the application of the law.
In 2016, STEPV has decided to bring those conclusions up to date but we have no good news to offer. In 2011, 29% of pupils received their education in Valencian. Five years later, this figure has reached just 30%. At the current rate of an average increase of 0,25% every year, we will reach the modest objective of 50% by 2094.
The policy of creating obstacles, implemented by the PP (Spanish Popular Party) in its last few years of government, was successful in diminishing the use of Valencian in the field of education. Examples of partisan governmental actions against the language of the Valencian people are: the decree on plurilingualism, which deactivated educational and immersion programmes taught in Valencian that had enjoyed a certain degree of success; the closure of existing Valencian units and the non-authorisation of new ones; the total lack of interest in making progress in vocational training and sixth form; the support given to the private sector, which is totally uncommitted to the language; the cutbacks in financial support for language normalisation; and the reduction in the number of language advisors.
The new, progressive Valencian government installed after the 2015 election, which has committed to re-energising the social vitality of the language, is a window of opportunity that must not be allowed to pass by. This Valencian government, which enjoys a wide range of support from the social organisations involved, must act resolutely in order to generate a dynamic that will lead to the recovery of the Valencian language.
Five years ago, our trade union emphasised the decisive nature of the moment for the future of the language in the field of education. Now the future of the language in the Valencian Community is at stake in every field: in the regions that have been abandoned to their fate, in private education and private enterprise (both of which decline to assume their social responsibility in these issues), and in the fields of language, science, knowledge and employability.
The LUEV has been an inadequate instrument for the normalisation of Valencian. In some cases it has made it impossible for almost three generations of Valencians to learn the Valencian language as they pass through the education system. What we stated in 2011: “it would be difficult to find anyone who has received their entire education in the Valencian language from three years of age to the end of their vocational training or university degree”, remains painfully true. We can wait no longer. Now is not the time for harbouring doubts or hesitation that would slow us down. Normalisation, like riding a bicycle, means moving constantly forward. As we know, the alternative would entail falling off it.
Objectives
The aims of this report are:
- To unify officially produced and/or published data from various organisations and institutions to obtain a rigorous, complete view of the extent to which the LUEV has been implemented in the education system at the non-university-level.
- To denounce the lack of transparency with which the Valencian government has handled this matter. In the last 34 years, no report, evaluation or full, rigorous assessment has been conducted by the Education Department on the state of Valencian in education. At the same time, frivolous changes to the legislation and organisation of the education system have been implemented (the 2012 Decree on Plurilingualism, for example) but no data or analyses have been shared with the education community.
- To analyse the data and evaluate the objective reality of the system so that we can detect deficiencies or deviations and draw conclusions that will help us to understand the situation and move forward in the right direction.
- To propose measures and actions that will help us to make progress towards meeting the objectives that are established by law. To try to reconstruct the education system and redress the current situation of inequality and imbalance.
Since the enactment of the LUEV, the Valencian education system has been characterised by the existence of several bilingual education programmes: the Programa d’Incorporació Progressiva (Progressive Incorporation Programme, or PIP), the Programa d’Immersió Lingüística (Linguistic Immersion Programme, or PIL) and the Programa d’Ensenyament en Valencià (Teaching in Valencian Programme, or PEV). The core language of the PIP is Spanish. However, in primary education it includes the knowledge area Natural, Social and Cultural Environment and in compulsory secondary education it includes two non-language knowledge areas that are taught in Valencian. The PIL uses Valencian as the vehicular language in most non-language knowledge areas. The PEV uses Valencian as the basic language of instruction. However, pupils in the predominantly Spanish-speaking areas can request exemption from studying Valencian as a subject. Also, the application of bilingual education programmes depends on the previously declared will of families and the organisational capacity of schools.
Education in Valencian: the state of affairs
Since 1998 there have also been attempts (e.g. the Programa d’Educació Bilingüe Enriquit (Enriched Bilingual Education Programme, or PEBE) to introduce a foreign language as a vehicular language in the first few years of primary education.
In 2012 the PP government in València published Decree 127/2012, which regulates plurilingualism in non-university education. This decree established two new programmes to replace the previous ones: the Programa Plurilingüe d’Ensenyament en Valencià (Plurilingual Programme for Education in Valencian, or PPEV), the core instructional language for which is Valencian; and the Programa Plurilingüe d’Ensenyament en Castellà (Plurilingual Programme for Education in Spanish, or PPEC), the core instructional language for which is Spanish. Both of these language programmes are characterised by the teaching of curricular content in Valencian, Spanish and English, though other foreign languages may also be included.
We should state at this stage that the implementation of these new programmes at primary level has had no positive repercussion on the state of education in Valencian (see Table 1.1 p. 5).
The Decree on Plurilingualism is an attack on the Valencian language. Linguistic immersion – the possibility that pupils may receive their whole education in Valencian – disappears because both new programmes require certain knowledge areas, subjects and modules to be taught in Valencian and Spanish, irrespective of the core language of the plurilingual programme so that, in addition to the language areas and subjects, at least one more area or subject is taught in the language that is not the core language of the programme. With the excuse that teaching in a foreign language was being introduced, this has provoked a backward step for education in Valencian. Moreover, the government has created a false dilemma by provoking senseless conflicts between English and Valencian and between Spanish and Valencian. Education in Valencian, the language of the Valencian Community, has been hampered and cut back.
The triple fragmentation of the education system in the Valencian Country
In 2016 we can only repeat what we said in 2011: “An analysis of the implementation of the LUEV covering the entire educational system shows the remarkably slow law enforcement and the slight growth of the amount of students who receive their education in Valencian. Likewise, it is evident that the policies implemented by the regional government since 1995 have consolidated strong imbalances between the different educational stages, between public and private institutions, and between areas. In short: the more to the south, the less Valencian; the older the students are the less Valencian; the more semi-private education (funded with public money), the less Valencian. At present we can come to the conclusion that our educational system is a fragmented one which, therefore, does not meet the purpose of leveling inequalities”.
- Pupils enrolled on teaching programmes in Valencian (the PEV, PIL or either of the new PPEV) represent 30.3% of all pupils, compared with 29% in 2011. Pupils enrolled on the PIP or the PPEC represent 69.7% of all pupils, compared with 71% in 2011 (57.3% in predominantly Valencian-speaking areas and 12.4% in predominantly Spanish-speaking areas where Valencian is taught only as a language subject.
- 3 out of 10 pupils receive their education in programmes in Valencian.
- Almost 6 out of 10 pupils receive their education in programmes that include some subject in Valencian.
Just over one pupil in ten studies Valencian as a subject.
Not only does the government not ensure the continuity of teaching programmes in Valencian between the various stages of education but it also ensures their disappearance the further the pupils advance in their schooling (see Table 1 on page 6)
Fragmentation between stages of education
Enrolled on education programmes in Valencian are 36.3% of infant school pupils, 37.1% of primary school pupils, and 32.4% of compulsory secondary school pupils. 18.3% of students enrolled at the sixth form level are fortunate enough to be able to continue their education in Valencian, but only 1.6% of students enrolled in vocational training courses are. 17.8% of children with special needs and 5.5% of students enrolled on PQPI (Initial Vocational Qualification Programmes) are taught in Valencian. No student is enrolled on distance-learning courses in Valencian.
One positive note in this evolution, however, is that the number of pupils whose studies in Valencian are limited to Valencian language classes has dropped by 4.4% in the last five years.
As we can see, the proportion of pupils in compulsory education who can receive their education in Valencian is over 3 out of 10 but this falls to just 1 out of 10 in non-compulsory secondary education and disappears completely in vocational training. The outlook could not be more disappointing: the older the student, the fewer opportunities they have to conduct their studies in Valencian.
The city of València
València, the capital city of the Valencian Country with a population of 786,189 according to the 2015 census, makes up almost 20% of residents in predominantly Valencian-speaking areas and is also the area with the most schoolchildren. Any statistical analysis of the city, which sets the trends and steers the social dynamics for the rest of the Country, is therefore symptomatic of the state of affairs in general. Despite a slight improvement on the figures for 2011, what we observe from that analysis is extremely perturbing: the figure for València is 15% lower (compared to 21% five years ago) than the average for the education system as a whole (30.3%).
- 1.4 out of 10 children who start school at 3 years of age are taught in Valencian. This figure rises to 2 out of 10 in secondary school education but drops to 1 out of 10 in sixth form education. Students who choose a vocational education programme are forced to abandon their education in Valencian.
- In València the number of pupils receiving their education in Valencian is 15% lower than in the rest of the Valencian Country. This figure is an improvement on that recorded in 2011, which was 21%. However, at all phases of education the percentage of pupils or students receiving their education in Valencian is only 9.8%, or 17,250 children out of a total of 131,821.
Fragmentation between the public and private sectors
The public-private system for education in Valencian is fully consolidated. Only 6.5% (6.3% in 2011) of students who receive their education in Valencian attend schools in the private system as opposed to 93.4% (93% in 2011) who attend schools in the public system, i.e. less than 1 out of 10 children in the private system receive their education in Valencian.
It is a fact that public expenditure for teaching programmes taken at institutions in the private sector, via the system of state-sanctioned private education, has increased considerably. According to the Spanish Statistical Office (INE), between 2000 and 2003, this expenditure increased steadily by as much as 161% in the Valencian Country.
With the declared intention of the PP’s education department to “strike a balance” between public and private education, finance for state-sanctioned private education has increased significantly more than that for public education.
On the other hand, the percentage of pupils receiving their education in Valencian throughout the non-university education system is increasing in the public system and decreasing in the private one. In 1998, 7.9% of pupils in the state-sanctioned private sector received their education in Valencian; in 2014, the figure remained at just 6.5%.*
*The Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport publishes its reports Las cifras de la educación en España (Figures for education in Spain) with a two-year delay.
We should bear in mind that out of every 10 pupils in the education system of the Valencian Country as a whole, less than 7 attend schools in the public sector and more than 3 attend schools in the private sector. This means that a large number of students are practically left out of education programmes taught in Valencian. The percentage of students enrolled in the state-sanctioned private sector in the academic year 2014–2015 was roughly 33% (out of a total number of 857,411 pupils). This means that the state-sanctioned private sector, which receives public expenditure to provide schooling for 283,689 pupils, abandons one of the responsibilities with which it is entrusted by the legal framework of the education system, i.e. to promote the use of Valencian as language of instruction.
Out of 10 pupils enrolled in the state-sanctioned private sector, only 0.5 pupils are taught in Valencian, 7.5 pupils are taught in Spanish, and 2 pupils, resident in predominantly Spanish-speaking areas, study Valencian only as a language subject (though no data on the monitoring and social control to which the private system is committed as a receiver of public funds are made available). Moreover, the number of pupils in the private system who receive their education in Valencian has fallen by 50% (in 1998 almost one pupil out of 10 was taught in Valencian). We may conclude that the commitment to Valencian of the state-sanctioned private sector decreases as its public funding increases.
Fragmentation between territories
The population of the Valencian Country is mainly concentrated in the provinces of València and Alacant, while the province of Castelló is much less populated. According to figures for the academic year 2015–16, the distribution of pupils for the education system as a whole is as follows:
Out of every 10 pupils, 5 are located in the province of València, almost 4 are located in the province of Alacant and only 1 is located in the province of Castelló.
For every 5 pupils attending schools in the province of València, only 2 (or just over 38,88%) receive their education in Valencian. In the province of Alacant, only 0.5 of the 4 pupils attending schools there do so (less than 10%). The highest percentage of pupils receiving their education in Valencian (70%) is observed in the province of Castelló, but this has a minimum impact on the global figures.
The number of pupils attending schools in the province of Castelló is just 81,468, while the figures for the provinces of València and Alacant are 350,946 and 231,923, respectively. While the 57,388 boys and girls in the province of Castelló who study in Valencian this year represent a high percentage for that province, they are just a small number compared to the figure of 664,337 for the territory as a whole.
Growth in pupils receiving their education in Valencian
While the number of pupils being taught in Valencian is increasing, growth is slow. In 20 years, the figure has increased by just 28%. According to the figures published by the Valencian Department of Education, in the academic year 2010–11, the percentage of pupils being taught in Valencian was 29% and in academic year 2015–16, the figure is 38%.
The classification of positions in education institutions
Positions in education are classified in Valencian. Teachers are obliged to possess sufficient language knowledge in both Valencian and Spanish to ensure the correct fulfilment of the requirements and regulations of the LUEV and the objectives of the education system as far as pupils’ knowledge of the two official languages on equal terms is concerned.
In 1997, all jobs in infant and primary public (state) schools were classified as bilingual when the primary school teaching corps was assigned to the new positions resulting from application of the new law governing the education system (LOGSE).
The secondary teaching staff agreement of 1999, signed by all trade unions in the education sector, resolved to classify positions in the secondary level of education, though this was not completed until the publication of Order 90/2013.
Since 2002, every teacher who has entered the education system by means of a public competitive examination has been required to have linguistic competence in Valencian. Decree 62/2002 established that accreditation of linguistic competence in both official languages would be required in order to provide or acquire teaching positions in the non-university public education system. Since then, candidates for public service entrance examinations for the teaching profession need to accredit “sufficient knowledge” of both languages.
The classification of secondary teaching positions should ensure the continuity of education in Valencian for thousands of primary school pupils entering secondary education. In the last few years, over 90,000 pupils have been able to do so.
Order 90/2013 classified in Valencian every position: in the primary, secondary and vocational training public education systems; of education inspectors and inspectors serving the education administration; and in public services or units that provide support to schools and the education system.
However, although every position considered in the Order has been classified since 9th November 2013, this measure will not have any real effect until 1st September 2017.
The latest data on teaching staff show that most teachers (whether in full-time positions or on supply) possess the linguistic competence they need to satisfy the requirements of the public education system in Valencian. That said, the Valencian Department of Education should make an effort to enable teachers who still do not have the required qualifications in the Valencian language to obtain them.
Still to be classified are teaching positions in artistic institutions, e.g. elementary conservatories of music, professional and higher conservatories of music and dance, art schools, schools of design and ceramics, and higher schools of dramatic art. It is not possible, therefore, for students who wish to study artistic subjects to continue their education in Valencian. The Valencian government should guarantee education in Valencian for all students in all subjects.
The education in Valencian in towns of over 35,000 inhabitants
The population of towns in the Valencian Country with over 35,000 inhabitants represents 44.9% (2,239,215) of the total population of just under 5 million inhabitants (4,980,689 according to the 2015 census). The demographic weight of these towns is both an indication and a symptom of the difficulties faced by the language in establishing itself as a normal channel of knowledge and communication. Moreover, population centres exert a gravitational effect in terms of dynamics and social strategies on the whole of the territory to which they belong.
If we consider just the infant and sixth form stages of education, i.e. the entry and exit stages of non-university education, we can gain an idea of the language’s evolution as it passes through the education system. Data show that of the 17 Valencian towns with over 35,000 inhabitants, only 6 have more pupils taught in Valencian than in Spanish in infant schools. Two of these are in the province of Castelló (Castelló and Vila–real), three are in the province of València (Alzira, Gandia and Mislata), and one is in the province of Alacant (Dénia). At the sixth form level, there are none. Only one town seems to be resisting this trend – Vila-real, where 46.1% of pupils at this stage of education are taught in Valencian, followed by Sagunt (30.4%).
In towns with over 35,000 inhabitants, the average percentage of pupils who study in Valencian at infant school is 40.4%. There are 10 towns below this average, five of which are in the province of València (the city of València, Paterna, Burjassot, Torrent and Ontinyent) and 5 of which are in the province of Alacant (the city of Alacant, Elx, Benidorm, Alcoi and Sant Vicent del Raspeig). At the sixth form level, where the overall percentage of pupils in the Valencian Country studying in Valencian is 14%, there are five towns below this average (Alcoi, the city of València, Elx, Torrent and Gandia) and 5 towns with no students studying in Valencian (Alacant, Paterna, Benidorm and Mislata).
Once again we observe the imbalance between public and private schools in terms of education in Valencian. While in the public sector every town provides education in Valencian, this is not true of the private sector. In the state-sanctioned private sector at the infant level, 9 of the 17 towns studied provide no education in Valencian. Six of these are in the province of València (Sagunt, Paterna, Mislata, Alzira, Burjassot and Ontinyent) and three are in the province of Alacant (Elx, Benidorm and Sant Vicent del Raspeig). It is notable that in Dénia, Gandia and, to a lesser extent, Vila-real, the private sector maintains a level of education in Valencian at the infant level that is comparable to that of the public sector and that is sometimes even higher than in such emblematic towns as the city of València itself.
At the secondary level, no state-sanctioned private school provides education in Valencian in the towns studied. Not one of them. In a context in which this sector asserts its values in comparison with the public sector, this observation seems indicative of that sector’s level of commitment to a society that supports and finances it.
The percentage of pupils enrolled at public institutions in the towns studied is 48.4% at the infant level and 11.3% at the sixth form level. In the state-sanctioned private sector, on the other hand, these figures drop to 6.6% and 0%, respectively.
Also observed is an increase from 2011 in the number of pupils receiving their education in Valencian at the infant level, which indicates that the social demand for education in Valencian is increasing. This demand is thwarted, however, the further the pupils advance through the education system, the further south we look, and the more we move away from the public sector towards the private sector.
In terms of territory, our analysis of the main cities shows that in Alacant, for example, there is growth but also neglect. The two most important cities in the Valencian Country after the city of València – Alacant and Elx – are located in the south of the Country. In those towns the provision of studies in Valencian is facing a desperate situation.
As we can see, therefore, the triple imbalance – between the public and the private sector, between territories, and between stages of education – remains intact.
The constants of analysis can therefore be summarised as follows:
- There is no grand plan to increase the numbers. Every city has its own percentage. There is no parallelism between the social use of Valencian and the provision of education in the language (e.g. in Alcoi, Ontinyent, Alzira and Dénia).
- In the latter stages of education, students taking their education in the Valencian language are lost. This is drastically true at the sixth form level.
- Except in exceptional cases, the private sector does not assume the responsibility it has been given, especially in the big cities.
The towns and cities of Alacant
Five of the towns and cities with populations of over 35,000 inhabitants are located in the province of Alacant. These include the cities with the second and third largest populations in the Valencian Country – Alacant and Elx. All five are located in Valencian-speaking areas and, as in almost all of these areas, education in Valencian, with just a token presence at the infant and primary stages of education, is in a desperate situation. At this rate, we are going nowhere and at the sixth form stage, Valencian will become extinct as a language of instruction.
For opposing reasons we need to highlight the situation in towns like Alcoi and Dénia. Alcoi is one of the more emblematic regions of the Valencian Country when it comes to defending the language but suffers a high rate of “de-Valencianisation” at all stages of education, reaching a figure of just 13.2% of pupils at the sixth form stage who receive their instruction in Valencian. Dénia, which is one of the exceptions to the imbalance between the public and private sectors, maintains a fairly decent level of education in Valencian at the compulsory stages of education but does not escape the rout at the sixth form level, where only 20.3% of students receive instruction in Valencian.
The towns and cities of Castelló
Castelló is the province of the Valencian Country with the highest degree of normality. Valencian is the majority language of instruction in cities of over 35,000 inhabitants (Vila-real and Castelló), at least up until the end of compulsory education. However, as in the rest of the Valencian Country, at the sixth form level Spanish once again becomes the prevailing language. While in Vila-real a certain equilibrium is maintained between the two languages, Castelló follows the same path as the other provincial capitals with just a token presence of Valencian as the language of instruction at the sixth form level.
The towns and cities of València
The province of València exemplifies like no other the paradoxes highlighted by the absence of a system and the lack of planning regarding the extent of the use of Valencian in education since the implementation of the LUEV almost 35 years ago. In València, the capital of the Valencian Country, we observe a similar extent and trend with regard to the progressive abandonment of the language as in the towns and cities in the south of the Country. The towns of Alzira and Sagunt have excellent levels of instruction in Valencian but Mislata and Gandia, on the other hand, suffer a radical and incomprehensible decline as pupils end their compulsory secondary education and enter sixth form. It appears that the fate of Valencian as a language of instruction in the various territories of the Valencian Country depends largely on the level of commitment and determination of parents, pupils and teachers. In the best of cases, the impetus provided by this commitment and determination reaches as far as the secondary stage of education but again loses much of its strength when it reaches the sixth form stage.
The situation in València (the capital of the Valencian Country and the mirror in which all the territories in the Country are viewed) is especially lamentable. Here, the ample supply of state-sanctioned private education, which is hardly committed to the language of the Valencian people, is not just a minor factor in this. One manifestation of the narrow range of possibilities for studying in Valencian can be found in the historic city centre, where only one public school provides just one track in the language.
Assessment of the Vsituatiuon faced by education in Valencian
In the last few years, instruction in Valencian has continued to increase, albeit slowly. In 2011, 29% of students received their education in Valencian. Five years later, only 38% do. We believe this is due to the weak commitment of the Spanish Popular Party government to extend teaching in Valencian in the education system.
The government has stubbornly refused to be more transparent with results and the application of the law. Without data, evaluation, consensus, planning or a schedule, the previous administration created a false dilemma and seemed interested in starting senseless conflicts between English and Valencian and between Spanish and Valencian.
There has been no continuity or foresight. With no short- or long-term objective that is known and shared by the education community and without the planning needed to meet it, we have reached where we are now thanks to the commitment, goodwill and efforts of institutions, families and teachers. This is also true of the predominantly Spanish-speaking regions.
The increase, which has been slow and imbalanced, runs the risk of stagnating, or even regressing. The number of pupils taught in Valencian is increasing, albeit very slowly: by just 28% (from 10.2% to 38.4%) in the last 20 years.
The hopes and commitment of so many people – teachers, students, advisors, technicians, town councils, civic associations, trade unions, political parties – and all the effort invested in enabling a significant step forward in the learning and use of Valencian will enter a phase of regression.
We need an effective plurilingual model that guarantees the dominance on equal terms of the two official languages and the acquisition of a third language. At STEPV we will continue working for the normalisation of Valencian in the education system and in society in general. To achieve it, we believe it is necessary to make teaching programmes in Valencian more generally available and to have means of communication in our language.
In this Country, a modern society in which plurilingualism is a fact that adds, incorporates and creates employment and economic opportunities, the social and territorial structure must be founded on a language – our own language – while the family language of every citizen is respected. As is demonstrated by the increasing demand for instruction in Valencian, this is a feeling shared by our society.
We must urge the new government to commit to re-energising the social vitality of the Valencian language in order to redress the current situation. The future of the language is at stake in every field. The normalisation of the language must proceed. We can wait no longer.
STEPV proposals
Valencian, the natural and co-official language of the Valencian Country according to the Statute of Autonomy and the Law on the Use and Teaching of Valencian, receives neither the protection to which it is entitled by law nor the comprehensive and sustained institutional impetus to support its extension and use.
Those who governed with absolute majorities for so many years and who were in charge of upholding and enforcing the law not only failed to encourage the use of Valencian in education and other social spheres but also hampered and hindered its expansion. This led to demands for compliance with the law to be made from all quarters and enforced the commitment of teachers, parents, administrative and service staff, assemblies, school boards and school councils, etc. A part of Valencian society has had to demand on a daily basis that the government respect their rights and uphold the law.
We are faced with a situation in which the system of public education not only does not act as a guarantor of equal opportunity for pupils but allows pupils to be discriminated against on the basis of language and consolidates a fractured and disjointed system.
The Department of Education, which is more in favour of the monolingualism (Spanish) of the LUEV than bilingualism (Valencian and Spanish), has proclaimed itself to be a strong defender of plurilingualism and limited itself in practice to allowing the introduction of foreign languages (especially English but also Mandarin Chinese) into the education system. STEPV’s main criticism of the plurilingual “model” introduced by the government is that the introduction of other languages into the education system has come at the expense of Valencian. The starting point for any plurilingual plan applied to our education system must be that pupils in the Valencian Country should first and foremost achieve the objective set by the LUEV: master the Valencian language on equal terms with Spanish. Our main proposals are:
- To make Valencian the core of the linguistic and academic curriculum and a language of integration and cohesion for the education community; to normalise the use of Valencian in administration and academia as well as in society in general and to extend this normal use of the language to the environment of each institution.
- To enable pupils and students to acquire a plurilinguistic competence that comprises: an equal and thorough mastery of both co-official languages; functional competence in both foreign languages; and an enriching contact with other languages and cultures that, though not part of the curriculum, are the languages and cultures of various sections of students attending the institution.
- To accelerate the rate of increase in teaching in Valencian. This requires a review of programmes throughout the entire system along the lines of the IVAQUE (Valencian institute for evaluation and quality in education) evaluations, i.e. that the objective of equality in linguistic competence between the two languages should be achieved via the PEV and PIL programmes; and that the success of the bilingual programmes is the best foundation for achieving plurilingualism.
- To consolidate and extend instruction in Valencian at the secondary, sixth form and vocational training stages. This requires the regulation of teaching staffs and the linguistic classification of positions. This was already made possible in 1999 by the teaching staff agreement, but that agreement has still not been implemented.
- To achieve territorial balance: the 44-point difference between Castelló and Alacant in the extent of teaching programmes in Valencian makes it essential to plan objectives that go beyond the voluntary.
- To achieve a balance between the public and private sectors. The private sector, financed with public money, must assume its obligations, including its demographic and territorial responsibilities. Without state-sanctioned private education, significant progress in urban areas could not be made at this stage.
- To meet the demand for education in Valencian wherever it arises, especially at the infant stage but also at the compulsory secondary education, sixth form, and vocational training stages, and at university.
- To initiate a specific plan of action for adult education, official music schools, art education and special education.
Normes d'ús