January 2006

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A DRAFT BILL PROPOSES MAKING FRIULAN COMPULSORY

January 2006- Lega Nord’s regional councillors Claudio Violino, Alessandra Guerra, Massimo Franz and Fulvio Follegot have drafted a regional bill for the teaching of Friulan language in school. Friulan, a Rhaeto-Romance variety related to Ladin in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and Romansh in Switzerland, spoken by about half a million people living in the three Friulian provinces of Udine/Udin, Pordenone/Pordenon and Gorizia/Gurize, is one of the twelve languages recognised and protected by Act 482/1999.

Act 482/1999 established the restricted introduction of Friulan in the education system, public offices, local government, courts, mass media, place names and personal names. However, the promoters of the proposal believe that the situation of Friulan in school is still precarious, especially on account of deficient funding and lack of skilled teaching staff and teaching material. In fact, regulations for the application of the Act did not come into force until 2001, and six years after its approval the law has not been entirely implemented. Lack of coordination and official guidelines have made the teaching of Friulan circumstantial and a matter of will.

The aim of the proposed law is to provide the language with the appropriate administrative arrangements, eradicate precariety and the provisional situation the teaching of the language undergoes and enter a period of consolidation throughout the Friulan territory. To do so, the proposal foresees going a step further and making Friulan compulsory in school, which improve on the provisions of Act 482/1999 that established that Friulan could be taught only with the parents’ consent. It also foresees the education in Friulan through other subjects instead of learning the language on a one-hour a week basis. The proposal establishes the setting up of a permanent Commission in charge of organizing appropriate training for language staff and well-designed programmes of study, and sets out a plan to improve the funding to implement the law.