Teacher faces disciplinary case in Catalonia for speaking Spanish in class

A secondary school teacher in Catalonia has faced disciplinary proceedings for speaking Spanish in class, according to the Plataforma de Profesores por la Libertad de Elección de Lengua (Platform of Teachers for Freedom of Language Choice). The case once again brings to the fore the conflict between compulsory Catalan immersion and families' right to choose the language of schooling.

The news comes with full institutional detail: a secondary school teacher in Catalonia is facing administrative proceedings for having used Spanish in the course of his teaching. The story was reported by the **Plataforma de Profesores por la Libertad de Elección de Lengua**, linked to the association **Hablamos Español** (We Speak Spanish), which places the case at the centre of a controversy that has gone unresolved for years: which language is used for teaching, and who decides.

## A disciplinary case that reopens the battle over language in the classroom

The proceedings are not an isolated incident or a corridor anecdote. They are the visible tip of a school model that, in Catalonia, has made Catalan the vehicular language of education and left Spanish in a subsidiary position, when not outright awkward. The platform's complaint argues that this model is imposed over and above the linguistic reality of thousands of families.

The association **Hablamos Español** has long been documenting similar cases and defending freedom of language choice. Its underlying argument is simple: if a family wants their child to study in Spanish, the administration should make it possible, not obstruct it. For the platform, the teacher's disciplinary case is proof that the rules are applied harshly against anyone who steps out of line.

## The decline of Catalan as an argument for immersion

Those who defend compulsory immersion usually rely on a figure the platform itself cites: the use of Catalan is in decline. If the language is being lost, they say, it must be protected from the school onwards. It is a logic that turns the classroom into an instrument of language policy rather than a space for learning.

The problem is that this reasoning comes at a cost. The platform argues that millions of Catalan children speak and think in Spanish, and that the system treats them as an anomaly to be corrected. The consequence, in its view, is a decline in educational outcomes: when learning is forced in a language that is not the mother tongue of a large part of the student body, performance suffers. The platform cites the **PISA** reports as a gauge of that decline.

## Galicia, the same pattern with a different accent

The text that sparked the debate does not stop at Catalonia. Its author, **Emilio Álvarez Cid**, spokesman for the platform, also speaks about Galicia, and does so from personal experience. There, according to his testimony, the **Xunta** (the regional government of Galicia) went so far as to forbid a teacher from writing in Spanish, an action the platform describes as unconstitutional.

The pattern repeats itself: administrations that use language as a tool of identity cohesion, and teachers who run into disciplinary proceedings when they do not go along with the official line. The underlying question is to what extent a regional government can impose a single vehicular language when the Constitution establishes Spanish as the official language of the State and recognises the right to use it.

## The question left hanging

The platform puts forward a proposal that sounds reasonable outside the political debate: respect families' language choice and educate students in whichever official language each one chooses. They are not calling for the elimination of Catalan, but for it not to be imposed. And they add an uncomfortable doubt: if educational outcomes improved under that model, would the administrations prefer the improvement or the preservation of the language?

There is no official answer to that question. What there is, is an open disciplinary case, a teacher under scrutiny, and a debate that resurfaces every time someone decides to speak Spanish where they are expected to speak Catalan. That is the nature of language policy: it turns language into a battleground and leaves teachers on the front line. Any administrative decision on the case affects linguistic and employment rights, so it is best to wait for a final ruling before taking anything for granted.