Albisteak
New language decree will dismantle progress made with Galician, say Queremos Galego
The new government in Galicia under Alberto Núñez Feijóo (PP Conservatives) has proposed a new decree which will reduce the amount of Galician used in schools. It has been met with a storm of protest led by the new umbrella NGO Queremos Galego who have led demonstrations of up to 100,000 people, huge by language campaign standards. Queremos Galego visited Brussels two weeks ago to gain international support, meeting with the European Parliament's Intergroup for Traditional Minorities, National Communities and Languages and with the European Commission.
Language decree
The language decree, which will be voted on in May, is seen by many as unravelling the gradual progress made with Galician development since the end of the dictatorship.
Measures include reducing the amount of subjects taught in Galician from 50% to 33% and introducing English, and disallowing the teaching of maths and science subjects through Galician. The new government has already fulfilled its election promise by closing down a new network of Galician-medium pre-schools (Galescolas).
Not multilingualism as we know it
What has disappointed many in Brussels is the cynical way with which the Galician government has said that the new decree promotes the concept of multilingualism and European values. The government says that the decree promotes multilingualism because it will be promoting English, and that it ties in with European values because this will increase people's language skills and therefore their mobility and employment prospects.
But English is hardly a language that needs promotion, and learning any language is a useful skill - including Galician. It is certainly not the idea of Multilingualism promoted by the European Commission.
In contrast, the new decree undermines European values. It clearly goes against the Council of Europe's European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, who's 2008 report on Spain highlighted the shortcomings with Galician provision. It also contravenes the EU Treaty clause on "respect for linguistic diversity", and more particularly the Charter of Fundamental Rights contained in the Treaty which states that discrimination on the grounds of language or being from a national minority is prohibited. All these treaties have been ratified by Spain. In addition, as Queremos Galego underline, the decree also infringes the Galician Language Normalization Act.
No immersion education
What is also worrying is the lack of immersion education in Galician. European best practice in language planning and development of lesser-used languages includes having immersion education in the target language, for example, the Basque-medium Model D in the Basque country, or Catalan and Welsh-medium schools. These are absent in Galicia, and the new government has just dismantled the new Galician-medium pre-school network.
The 2001 census figures below show a relatively healthy number of speakers, but what is clear is that there is some decline in Galician usage amongst the young:
- Age group: 5-9 year olds: always %37.63; sometimes %47.77; never %14.50
- Age group: 10-14 year olds: always %41.46; sometimes %49.23; never %9.30
- Age group: 15-19 year olds: always %44.44; sometimes %42.27; never %13.28
- Age group: 20-24 year olds: always %45.82; sometimes %37.15; never %17.01
- Age group: 25-29 year olds: always %45.01; sometimes %37.29; never %17.69
- Age group: 30-34 year olds: always %47.06; sometimes %36.00; never %16.93
- Age group: 35-39 year olds: always %50.16; sometimes %33.95; never %15.88
- Age group: 40-44 year olds: always %54.43; sometimes %31.70; never %13.85
- Age group: 45-49 year olds: always %57.54; sometimes %29.85; never %12.59
- Age group: 50-54 year olds: always %60.67; sometimes %27.66; never %11.65
- Age group: 55-59 year olds: always %65.08; sometimes %24.48; never %10.43
- Age group: 60-64 year olds: always %69.94; sometimes %20.61; never %9.43
Total: always %56.84; sometimes %30.29; never %12.86
This makes it essential that Galician-medium schools are established to arrest any further decline.
Simply a bad language law
As with the recently amended Slovak language law, the proposed decree is bad language law. Philologists, linguists and teachers consider that it is «not possible» to establish this trilingual model because of a lack of teachers qualified to teach in English. Campaigners point out that in practice with the English 33% requirement teachers will simply switch to Castilian medium. Experts claim that it is bad practice to bring English into the education process alongside the two co-official languages (Galician and Castilian), and that the move will severely undermine the success that the Galician language model has had to date. Already teachers are signing up to refuse to implement the decree.
Moreover, the decree appears more like a petty political act of revenge against the previous administration rather than any well thought out policy. It shows, yet again, the price of leaving language law and planning open and vulnerable to the winds of political change.
Davyth A. Hicks
Editor-in-Chief, Eurolang, minority language agency
