Language learning is one of the main concerns in all Autonomous Communities. A recent comparison has been published between the results of the general schools in Catalonia and those of its Learning Communities. While the general schools show no improvement, the Learning Communities have achieved progress to the point that, even in schools located in areas with the lowest socioeconomic index, their results are above average in Catalan, Spanish, and English. It is well scientifically proven that these improvements are achieved through Successful Educational Actions (SEAs), validated by the international scientific community and by the European Commission. Although the Catalan Department of Education also promotes other actions that lack scientific validation and lead to failure, it is increasingly supporting SEAs and Learning Communities with a significantly strengthened commitment during this academic year.
In other Autonomous Communities, the dynamic has been the opposite. Some offered strong support to SEAs years ago, achieving significant improvements in their educational outcomes. However, in recent times, the slowdown in school performance has coincided with the reduction of that support. Alarmingly, some education departments are now promoting the very actions from Catalonia that have been shown to worsen language learning and values, while also contributing to a rise in xenophobic attitudes.
These misguided policies are based on the false belief that language learning cannot improve in schools with “too much immigration.” This hoax is scientifically disproven by studies showing that Learning Communities in Catalonia, even in contexts with only one Catalan-speaking family in the entire school community, still achieve results above the average. Immigration is not what worsens outcomes—failure-inducing actions and so-called “experts” who have never improved results in any school are to blame. The “solution” proposed is a recycled and long-discredited policy of forcibly redistributing students deemed problematic. This policy, always a failure in the past, is now disguised under the misleading label of a “desegregation plan.”
Fortunately, more and more sectors of the population and professionals are demanding that we stop listening to those who make recommendations for schools without ever having improved results anywhere. Unless this shift happens, we will not see the educational improvement that the public deserves.
Primary Education Teacher.
Currently working on his doctoral thesis at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV).