[Versió oficial en català / Official version in Catalan]

ACT 12/2009, JULY 10TH, ON EDUCATION
(DOGC NÚM. 5422 OF 16/07/2009) (Excerpt)

Title II. On the linguistic regime of the education system of Catalonia

Article 9. linguistic regime

1. The linguistic regime of the education system is guided by the principles established in this title and by the regulatory provisions of development enacted by the Generalitat's Government.

2. The Government, according with Article 53, is responsible for establishing the curricula of language teaching, including objectives, contents, assessment criteria and regulation of the timetables.

Article 10. Right and duty to know the official languages

1. The curricula should guarantee full competence in the official Catalan and Castilian languages at the end of compulsory education, in agreement with the Common European Framework of Reference for the Learning, Teaching and Assessment of Languages.

2. Pupils joining the education system without knowing one of the two official languages have the right to receive a specific linguistic support. Centres should provide newcomers with a personalized welcome and, in particular, with a linguistic attention that will enable them to begin learning through Catalan. Likewise, centres have to schedule the necessary activities to ensure that all pupils gradually improve their knowledge of both official languages and that the linguistic practices of teachers and other staff of the centre match the academic measures of linguistic support.

3. The curricula approved by the Government for professional training and special regime education, excluding language teaching, should ensure that pupils acquire the instrumental linguistic competence specific of their own studies and professional field.

4. The Government, in order to facilitate the exercise of the right and the fulfilment of the duty to know Catalan to the non-schooled population, should guarantee, in accordance with the provisions set forth in Article 6.2 of the Statute, sufficient supply of Catalan teaching.

Article 11. Catalan, vehicular and teaching language

1. Catalan, as the own language of Catalonia, is the language normally used as lingua franca and for teaching in the education system.

2. The educative activities, both oral and written, the didactic materials and textbooks, as well as the assessment activities of curricular areas, subjects and modules, must be normally in Catalan, except in the case of Castilian language and literature and foreign language subjects, and without prejudice to the provisions of Articles 12 and 14.

3. Pupils cannot be separated in different centres or group classes because of their usual language.

4. In the school year when pupils begin their initial education, mothers, fathers or guardians of pupils whose usual language is Castilian may request, at the moment of enrolment, and in accordance with the procedure set by the Department, for their children to receive individual linguistic attention in this language.

Article 12. Foreign languages

1. The curricula approved by the Government have to include the teaching of, at least, one foreign language, aiming at the acquisition of competences in listening, reading, talking, speaking and writing by the pupils, in agreement with the Common European Framework of Reference for the Learning, Teaching and Assessment of Languages.

2. The linguistic project must state, in accordance with the commands of the Department, which foreign language is taught as a first foreign language and which language, or which languages, as a second foreign language.

3. The linguistic project can state the criteria for teaching curricular contents and other educative activities in some of the foreign languages. In the first case, authorization of the Department is required.

Article 13. Linguistic competence of teachers, educational care professionals and administrative and service staff

1. Teachers from all centres must have the required qualifications and must prove, in the way stated by the regulations, their command of both official languages, in a way that they can use it properly, both orally and in written form, in the practice of teaching. Teachers, in the exercise of their profession, usually must use Catalan, both in teaching and learning activities and in the centre in general.

2. The Department must take the necessary measures to upgrade the linguistic competence of teachers and must promote the creation and use of didactic tools that facilitate the learning of Catalan and in Catalan.

3. Educational care professionals and administrative and service staff of the schools must know Catalan and Castilian, in a way that they are capable to use them properly in the exercise of their own tasks. The Department must establish the mechanisms and conditions that assure the knowledge and command of Catalan and Castilian among the non-teaching staff of the education administration.

Article 14. Linguistic project

1. Public centres and private centres receiving public funds must develop, as a part of the education project, a linguistic project that serves as a framework for the treatment of languages within the centre.

2. The linguistic project must include aspects related to the teaching and use of languages in the centre, among them at least the following:

a) The treatment of Catalan as vehicular and teaching language.

b) The process of teaching and learning of Castilian.

c) The different options regarding foreign languages.

d) The general criteria for the adjustment of the process of teaching languages, both globally and individually, to the sociolinguistic reality of the centre.

e) The education continuity and coherence, regarding linguistic uses, in school services and in activities organized by associations of mothers and fathers of pupils.

Article 15. Linguistic immersion programmes

1. The Department, so that Catalan keeps its function as language of reference and as a factor of social cohesion, must implement education strategies of linguistic immersion that assure its intensive use as a vehicular language and language of learning. In defining this strategies the sociolinguistic reality, the languages or languages of pupils and the process of teaching Castilian must be taken into account.

2. Centres must adapt their timetables to the characteristics of the linguistic immersion programmes, taking into account the number of hours of language areas to be taught throughout the period.

Article 16. Catalan, the official language of the Education Administration in Catalonia

1. Catalan, as the own language of Catalonia, is also the own language of the Education Administration.

2. The Education Administration and the centres usually must use Catalan both in their inner communications and the communications they interchange with each other, with public administrations of Catalonia and the rest of the Catalan linguistic domain and with public entities dependent on them. Catalan must be also the normal language for provision of services contracted by the Department.

3. Internal administrative actions of the centres must be usually done in Catalan, without prejudice of what is established in the Act on Linguistic Policy.

4. Centres must issue academic documents in Catalan, without prejudice of what is established in the Act on Linguistic Policy. Academic documents with effect in the field of State Administration or in an Autonomous Community outside the Catalan linguistic domain must be bilingual, in Catalan and Castilian.

5. Non official languages might be used in communications for the welcome of newcomers. In this case, the writings must be accompanied by the original text in Catalan, which will always be the preferential version.

Article 17. Linguistic regime in the education centres in Aran

1. Occitan, named Aranese in Aran, is the own language of this territory, according with article 6.5 of the Statute, and as such it is the lingua franca and the usual language for teaching in the education centres of Aran.

2. All the references made in this Title to Catalan as the own language of teaching in Catalonia are applicable to Occitan for the education centres of Aran.

3. Linguistic projects of the education centres of Aran must ensure as well an adequate presence of Catalan and that pupils acquire full command of Catalan and Castilian at the end of compulsory education.

4. References to the linguistic competence of teachers and other staff of the education centres of Aran are applicable to Occitan.

5. Regulations of this title relating to linguistic immersion programmes, to individual linguistic attention and to the language of the Education Administration must be adapted in Aran to the capacity of own language of Aran and official in Catalonia that the Statute attributes to Occitan.

Article 18. Use and promotion of Catalan

1. In order to show the character of vehicular language of Catalan in public cultural manifestations, Catalan must be normally the vehicle of expression in the activities of external outreach in public education centres and private education centres sustained with public funds.

2. In order to achieve social cohesion and educative continuity in the teaching and use of Catalan, public education centres and private education centres sustained with public funds must coordinate their activities with surrounding institutions and organizations.

3. Government must promote and support education centres abroad in the wider framework of international projection of Catalan culture and language and must contribute to sustain them, specially in the territories with historical, linguistic and cultural links with Catalonia.

4. In order to promote the education centres referred to in paragraph 3, the Government may establish cooperation agreements with institutions and organizations in the territories and countries where these centres are located and, if necessary, may propose to the State to conclude agreements in this field.