Catalan language school for kids launched in Berlin

Berlin will host a language school offering Catalan language courses for children up to 16 at the same level as that of schools in Catalonia.

CatEscola will be the second of its kind, after Escola Catalana Londres in the UK capital city launched for the 2023-2024 academic year.

The initiative in the German capital will start in May with a trial period, and it is expected that students will begin to learn Catalan at the same level as children of the same age in Catalan education centers from next academic year.

According to the foreign ministry, around 30 families have already enroled their kids in the CatEscola, which is organized in three groups: one for students between 1 and 3, one for pupils between 3 and 5, and one for the older ones.

Classes will be held on Sunday afternoons.

Also in 2024, a similar center will open in Zürich, Switzerland, and will join that of Berlin and the one in London.

The whole project, which will boast 120 students this year, is for kids between 1 and 16, and will allow them to have the official Catalan language qualifications following the education ministry curriculum – indeed, whenever they finish the studies, they will receive the C1 level diploma issued by the Ramon Llull Institute.

On Sunday, foreign minister Meritxell Serret visited the school in Berlin and said that her office is committed to ease the learning of the language for kids living in the Catalan communities abroad.

"Our language is the pillar of the Catalan society," she said.