Alexandra Usó: "Some centres receiving students affected by the DANA do not have the necessay classrooms or teachers"

How did DANA affect the school system in Valencia?

It was a disaster in terms of infrastructure and the response of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Now we have somewhat returned to normality thanks to the educational communities, in other words, thanks to the families (some people helped clean up the school before they started cleaning up their own houses) and the teachers. But pupils and teachers need psychological support, and this support has been almost non-existent, because it was provided by the schools' own support staff, when a lot more help was needed.

And how is it affecting the rest of the school year?

Let's start with the older kids: the ones in their last year of upper secondary school returned to classes at the end of January and, in some cases, were attending evening classes in different schools because they didn't have access to theirs. There is also the problem of professional work placements, because in the devastated areas of Horta Sud and Ribera Alta there are many companies where students do internships. In the primary and secondary schools, there is no guarantee that the centres taking in people from affected areas are receiving the necessary conditions in terms of space and teachers. At lunch hour, some people are forced to eat in the hallways because there is not enough space in the lunch room. We are trying to return to normality, but it is very difficult.

You mentioned that there is a generation of pupils marked by two big events: the covid-19 pandemic and DANA.

They have had to endure two very critical moments that have left a mark of fear on them. This fear has entered their DNA. Maybe the individualism of today's society is more present in them, or maybe the opposite, because they have also experienced many moments of solidarity.

Where is the response of the Government of Valencia failing?

The response of Carlos Mazón's government is deficient at all levels. Instead of having a president who is concerned or at least able to apologise for not having been where he was needed, we have a president who only cares about what Madrid does or does not do. The people of the affected area know that the Mazón's government is responsible for what happened that day. And, as for the response from 29 October, it is also the responsibility of the central government. It took a long time for the firefighters and the military to come in. The citizens felt very abandoned. Until a few weeks ago, some areas of Parc Alcosa still had no electricity. As much as you may have seen it on television, until you are there, you can't imagine what it's like.

What was the social response?

Escola Valenciana is part of the social movement that has been organising the demonstrations. Now there is an association of victims and we are giving them support. The Valencian society, like the Catalan society, is made up of resilient and supportive people. We will be there. In the face of injustice, we grow, we are empathetic; unlike Mazón's government.

Apart from the DANA, what is the role of Escola Valenciana?

It is a civic society that was born in 1983, when the law for the use and teaching of Valencian was passed and we, families and teachers, organised ourselves so that it could be applied the following school year. The three line models started then: one model was with a Valencian subject and the rest of the teaching in Spanish; another one was with a subject in Spanish and the rest of the programme in Valencian, and a third one that was progressive. These three programmes were in place until 2017, when the tripartite government came in with the Botanic Agreement and an attempt was made to make a law that would guarantee that, when students finish compulsory education, they would have competences in the two official languages. The private and publicly-funded private schools went on a warpath against the law. They took it to the fourth chamber of the High Court of Justice of Valencia, which is known for blocking everything that comes to it related to language. The text was so cut that we were left with 25% of teaching in Valencian.

What happened then?

When Mazón's government came in, it was considered that the law was an imposition of Catalan in the classrooms. Nothing further from the truth, but the ghost of Catalanism has always worked very well for the right wing of the Valencia. 

They created a law called educational freedom that indicates that families have the right to choose the language of instruction for their children. This is not a problem in private and publicly-funded private schools, but it poses many problems for the public system. With the system of lines, at the end of the enrolment, you could see how many teachers you needed in each area. Now we will not have that. For example, we have asked the councillor to specify what will happen if you have two groups of 25 students each and 37 families choose the same language. Will there be three groups? No. There will be one group of language A and all the others will form a mixed group. If language A is Spanish, Valencian will remain in a mixed group in which the “educational freedom” of none of these families will be respected. For Escola Valenciana, this is an attack. A public administration should make linguistic policies that favor a minority language, and we find ourselves with one that does just the opposite.

How have people responded to this law?

When it was approved, a group called Famílies pel Valencià emerged and organised talks with us, with FAMPA València and with the universities. We explained that choosing Valencian is equivalent to staying more or less as you are now; however, if you choose Spanish, you take away your child's right to learn a language that will benefit him/her at work and that will also give him/her the flexibility of growing up in a bilingual environment, which helps you to learn a third and a fourth language. As a parent, how do you choose not to have your child study Valencian knowing its benefits? Besides, he or she will not stop learning Spanish.

In Catalonia we have a relatively small number of students of Catalan Studies, despite the fact that they are professionals in high demand. Does the same thing happen in Valencia?

Now, anyone with a university degree and a C1 in Catalan can enter the Catalan Philology vacancy pool. And, if you finish high school with an average of seven or more, you automatically receive a C1 diploma. So, a lot of people from Journalism, Fine Arts, etc. are applying. That is very good because they have another vision, but it is very worrying that they have to substitute high school teachers because their level of Catalan is not enough for those courses. Escola Valenciana filed an administrative appeal to stop this validation. The issue is that the political party Compromís presented an appeal to the Constitutional Court which has been accepted: we wanted that, while this appeal is in progress, no diplomas would be issued because, if the law is declared unconstitutional, it will be a problem for many people when applying for teaching and civil servant positions, and so on. But our appeal went to the fourth chamber and has not prospered.

How do you see, in general, the health of Valencian?

The last barometer we have is from 2022. Since 2019, in three years, the use had dropped by 7%, more or less, in some Valencian-speaking towns. It worries me a lot. As Catalan-speakers we must change our attitude: this flexibility to switch to Spanish as soon as someone looks as if they do not understand us.... We must be more activists. We have our own language and culture, and it is a mark of identity that makes us different in a globalised world. This is what I like to transmit to my students.