You cannot teach a language well if you don't speak it fluently yourself
On the Balearic Islands, a language is quietly losing ground in the very places where it should be most alive — the classrooms where the next generation learns to name the world. The teachers' union STEI has responded not with alarm alone, but with architecture: a fifty-measure plan to rebuild the institutional and human conditions under which Catalan might once again become a living presence in schools, not merely a subject on a timetable. It is a reminder that languages do not fade through single decisions, but through accumulated neglect — and that recovery, likewise, demands sustained and deliberate care.
- Catalan is retreating from Balearic classrooms in a slow but measurable erosion that has gone without a coherent institutional response for years.
- STEI's fifty-point emergency plan signals that the union sees the situation as urgent enough to demand systemic reconstruction, not incremental adjustment.
- Two key language policy bodies abolished since 2012 — including the Directorate General for Linguistic Policy — are at the center of demands for institutional restoration.
- Teacher fluency is identified as a critical weak point: educators uncertain in Catalan are seen as directly producing students who are equally uncertain.
- The plan now rests with the Balearic government, where political will and budget availability will determine whether fifty interlocking measures become policy or remain a proposal.
The teachers' union STEI has spent years watching Catalan lose ground in the schools of the Balearic Islands. On Thursday, they stopped watching and started building — unveiling a fifty-point plan to reverse what they describe as a linguistic emergency across the region's educational system.
The goal is clear: every student completing mandatory education in the Balearics should leave with genuine competence in Catalan. Not as a studied subject, but as a working language — one used in classrooms, in vocational training, and in the daily life of schools. To get there, STEI argues, the system needs to be rebuilt from the inside out.
The plan begins with diagnosis — a comprehensive assessment of where Catalan actually stands in each school, where it is used and where it has been quietly abandoned. From that foundation, the proposal moves toward institutional restoration. Two bodies dismantled since 2012, the Directorate General for Linguistic Policy and the Service for Catalan Language Education, are central to STEI's demands. These were not peripheral offices; they were the structural backbone of coherent language policy across the system.
Teacher training is the plan's beating heart. STEI argues that an educator who is uncertain in Catalan will produce students who are equally uncertain — and that the current system has allowed this cycle to persist. Mandatory, substantive training in Catalan is framed not as an add-on but as a core professional requirement, one that demands real investment in time and resources.
What distinguishes this proposal is its insistence on interconnection. STEI is not asking for a single symbolic gesture but for fifty measures that together recreate the conditions under which a language can genuinely thrive. The union's message is deliberate: this decline did not happen by accident, and it will not be reversed by one either. The proposal now sits with the Balearic government, where political will and budget realities will decide its fate.
The teachers' union STEI walked into a problem that has been building for years: Catalan is retreating from the classrooms of the Balearic Islands, and nobody seems to have a clear plan to stop it. So they made one. On Thursday, the union unveiled a fifty-point proposal aimed at reversing what they see as a linguistic emergency in regional schools—a comprehensive overhaul that touches everything from how teachers are trained to which government bodies get restored to life.
The stakes are straightforward. STEI wants every student in the Balearics to graduate from mandatory education with genuine competence in Catalan. They want the language to be used more, spoken more, normalized across the entire educational community—not as a subject to be studied but as a living tool of instruction and daily school life. They want vocational students to leave their programs able to function professionally in Catalan. And they want teachers themselves to be fluent and confident in the language they're supposed to be teaching.
The fifty measures start with diagnosis. Before you fix something, you need to know exactly what's broken. STEI is calling for a comprehensive assessment of where Catalan stands in each school across the region—what's working, what's failing, where the language is actually being used and where it's been quietly abandoned. From there, the plan moves into institutional restoration. Two bodies were eliminated that STEI believes need to come back: the Balearic government's Directorate General for Linguistic Policy, and the Service for Catalan Language Education, which was shut down in 2012. These weren't minor administrative offices. They were the infrastructure that kept language policy coherent and intentional across the system.
Teacher training sits at the center of the proposal. You cannot teach a language well if you don't speak it fluently yourself, and STEI is arguing that the current system has let this slide. The union wants mandatory, robust training in Catalan for educators at all levels—not as an optional add-on but as a core professional requirement. This means money, time, and institutional commitment. It means recognizing that a teacher who is uncertain in Catalan will produce students who are uncertain in Catalan.
What makes this proposal significant is not that it's radical—it's that it's systematic. STEI isn't asking for one big gesture or a single policy change. They're asking for fifty interlocking pieces that together would rebuild the conditions under which Catalan could actually thrive in schools. The union is essentially saying: this didn't happen by accident, and it won't be reversed by accident either. It requires deliberate, sustained action across multiple fronts.
The proposal now sits with the Balearic government. Whether it gains traction depends on political will and budget. But STEI has made clear what they believe needs to happen: restore the institutions, train the teachers, measure the results, and commit to the idea that linguistic competence in Catalan is not optional—it's a baseline expectation for every student in the region.
Citações Notáveis
STEI wants every student in the Balearics to graduate from mandatory education with genuine competence in Catalan— STEI union proposal
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why does STEI think Catalan is actually retreating? Is this just a perception, or is there hard evidence?
The union is responding to real patterns they see in schools—less Catalan being used in instruction, fewer students graduating with genuine fluency, a kind of slow erosion that happened partly because the institutional structures that maintained language policy were dismantled. When you eliminate a Directorate General for Linguistic Policy, you don't just lose an office; you lose the coherence and intentionality behind the whole system.
The plan mentions restoring bodies that were eliminated in 2012. Why were they cut in the first place?
That's a political question I can't fully answer from the source, but the timing suggests it was part of a broader shift in how the regional government approached language policy. STEI is arguing that whatever the reasoning was then, the consequences have been negative enough that restoration is necessary now.
If teacher training is so central, how bad is the current situation? Are teachers actually unable to teach in Catalan?
The proposal doesn't spell out the exact deficit, but the fact that STEI is making teacher training a cornerstone of fifty measures suggests it's significant. You don't make something that central to your plan unless you believe it's a real bottleneck. Teachers who aren't confident in Catalan will teach it less, and students will learn it less.
What happens if the government ignores this proposal?
Then the trend STEI is worried about—declining Catalan competence among students—likely continues. The union is essentially saying: here's what needs to happen for this to reverse. If it doesn't happen, don't expect the outcome to change.
Is this about Catalan as a language, or is it about identity and politics?
It's both, but STEI is framing it as an educational competency issue. They're saying students should graduate able to function in Catalan professionally and socially. Whether that's also about cultural identity and regional autonomy is a separate conversation, but the union's argument is grounded in what students actually need to know.