‘Pa negre’ (Black Bread), directed by Agustí Villaronga and shot entirely in Catalan, was the main winner of the last Spanish film awards surprising everyone. Now it has been pre-selected together with Pedro Almodóvar’s latest movie ‘La piel que habito’ ('The Skin I Live In') and Benito Zambrano’s ‘La voz dormida’ (The Sleeping Voice). The film that will represent Spain will be known on September 28th.
A parliamentary motion has been approved, backing the Catalan linguistic immersion model at public schools. It was approved with the votes of all of the parliamentary groups except those from the People’s Party (PP) and the Unión Progreso y Democracia (UPyD). The motion received 192 “yes” votes and 148 “no” ones. It is the Spanish Parliament’s answer to the controversy over Spanish as language of instruction in Catalan public schools.
Jordi-Pere Cerdà was awarded Catalonia’s highest distinctions, including the National Prize for Literature, the Cross of Sant Jordi and the Prize of Honour of Catalan Letters. He wrote under the pseudonym Antoni Cayrol and was one of the main Catalan voices of the Roussillon.
The Catalan Government approves the modification of the Worship Centres Law from 2009. Town halls will no longer be obliged to save plots for the construction of new religious centres. No architectonical aspects are banned but the law gives town halls the authority to decide on the conditions of construction regarding aesthetics. In some Catalan towns, there have been complex controversies regarding the construction of mosques in recent years. Some Catalan towns have more than a 30% immigrant population, most of who have arrived in the last 10 years. The current approach is to give the authority to each individual town hall to adapt to its local reality.
Catalan researchers participated in an international study which analysed of more than 20,000 women from various countries. They have found that using intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUD) reduces the risk to suffer cervical cancer by half.
The inter-annual rate shows four consecutive months of price decline which has not been seen since November 2008.
The Barcelona-based energy multinational and the Catalan Government have signed a cooperative agreement. The Catalan President Artur Mas emphasised that the Catalan multinational “is rising to what the country needs” in the current economic context.
This Monday Catalan pupils begin their school year. 1,280,232 students from elementary, primary and secondary education returned to the classrooms with normality. However, controversies are lingering over this year. The Catalan language at schools, the sixth hour of tuition and budget restrictions all frame the school year’s kick off. The day finished with teacher and parent demonstrations in front of town halls defending the Catalan school model.
The strong heat diminishes the production of grapes of the wine region Priorat, but their quality is better. Priorat’s Protected Geographical Indication, which brings together some 600 farmers, expects a fall in grape production of around 15%, but the surviving grapes will be of great quality. Priorat red wines, produced in South-West of Catalonia, are internationally appreciated and are famous for their strong character.
The spokesman for Education at the European Commission warns that "monolinguals are potentially at a disadvantage" in terms of finding work. “From very young children should speak their mother tongue and two other languages”, he says.
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In a solemn ceremony and accompanied by his family and friends, the FC Barcelona manager has received the greatest honorary distinction from the Parliament of Catalonia.
The chairman of the committee on Education, Doris Pack, defends the Catalan model of education and says that people coming from outside Catalonia have to make an effort to learn the language of their new home: "It's like immigration in Germany, we do not have Turkish schools, newcomers need to get used to speak the language", she argued in an interview with the CNA.
The Catalan President says that he will not work with the conservative PP after the Spanish general election if the party “crosses the red line” and tries to push a language agenda which puts at risk the current Catalan educational system. The leader of the PP in Catalonia, Alicia Sánchez Camacho, says Mas should accept the Courts ruling that have obliged the Government to offer Spanish as well as Catalan as a language of instruction at school.
The President urges institutions and citizens to defend the Catalan education system, which has been put at risk following a court order obliging the Government to include Spanish as a school language of instruction. Meanwhile, the Catalan Minister for Education, Irene Rigau, warns that on the 2nd of November the government “will not separate pupils by language”
The Catalan Supreme Court of Justice issues a court order giving the Catalan Government 2 months to change the current school model and include Spanish as a school language of instruction. The Government will appeal. Teacher unions and the main parent associations back the current model. Currently, Catalan is the language used and Spanish is taught in school but only as a subject. For the Catalan Government, the court decision breaks a model praised by international organisations, which guarantees social cohesion and the knowledge of both languages by all pupils.