Young immigrants will learn Catalan before going to high school

I turn to the reception of children who come from other countries and are integrated into Catalan schools. Barcelona promotes a new reception program for immigrant adolescents. As of the next academic year 2023-2024, newcomers will not be integrated into the institute without knowing a little bit of Catalan. The first few months they will only receive Catalan and Spanish classes from teachers specialized in teaching languages ​​to foreigners, such as those from the official language schools. Once they reach a basic level of communication and can follow an ordinary class, they will integrate into the classrooms of the institute together with their new classmates.

This measure, of a pedagogical and non-social nature, which has the purpose of combating the school dropout of this group, cracks one of the major social consensus on non-segregation in immigration. And unleash the alarms.

The Consorci d’Educació de Barcelona plan is aimed at foreign boys aged 14 and 15, who are in the 3rd and 4th year of ESO. The measure replaces the “reception classrooms” currently organized by the centers if there are enough immigrant students to constitute them (at least 10). These are Catalan reinforcement classes, generally taught by the language and literature teacher, designed to improve their communication skills while the young person normalizes his life.

“In the educational sector, the reception classroom is a ‘must’ because it allows the student to integrate into the center from the first day, but when it is really so urgent that they understand the language in an instrumental way, to understand the teacher and to be able to express themselves orally and in writing, their immediate schooling does not make it easier”, explains Gemma Verdés, head of post-compulsory education at the Consorci d’Educació de Barcelona, ​​from where this program will be promoted.

“When a foreign student, especially a non-Romance language student, arrives in the educational system in 1st or 2nd year of ESO (from 11 to 14 years old) they have enough time to reach a good level of skills, but in 3rd and 4th they have little time left. . We clearly identified the factor of late incorporation with the index of non-continuation of education”, indicates the director of post-compulsory courses of the Consorci.

At the end of secondary school, only 57% of these young people continue studying compared to 86% of the rest of the native or immigrant students who arrived in previous years. And the risk of disengagement continues afterwards. The dropout rate of the first course of the intermediate cycle of FP is 40% and in high school, 14%.

“The centers do not always have the resource of the reception classroom and, in this case, there are two, three or four students who are sitting in a chair without understanding anything. Thus, months, with little learning”, indicates Verdés. And the tutors do what they can, he adds.

In the past academic year, 804 immigrants of these ages arrived in Barcelona, ​​who were incorporated throughout the academic year. More than half (420) enrolled in 4th ESO and not necessarily at the beginning of the course.

The Consorci’s plan is to open an outsourced and professionalized reception classroom per district. The location is not yet available, although work is underway on the line of equipment for underused young people in the morning. The centers will be coordinated by teachers from the official language school (EOI) (professionals in teaching language to non-native speakers), high school teachers (teachers and connoisseurs of adolescence), and adult schools (experts in accompaniment and guidance). “The ideal would be to reach a level equivalent to a B1, which is basic,” according to Verdés. The time in these linguistic acceleration centers is not established as it depends on the student.

However, to reach this level, an average of between 300 and 400 hours in total is calculated, according to the standards, which implies a minimum of four intensive months. For Montse Sábat, head of studies at the EOI of Drassanes, immersion in the language-speaking society accelerates learning, as well as prior knowledge of a Romance language, as is the case of young people from Latin American countries. Also of those, like some North Africans, who know French.

In other cases (Arabs, Chinese, Russians, Pakistanis) “you have to start by teaching them the alphabet, vocabulary and communication strategies,” says Sábat. A native boy, explains the teacher, learns to build texts, to read books and to know the language, saying that he already knows it. And that is the task of the language teacher. But the goal for foreigners is for them to learn to express themselves and communicate from scratch. The exercises are different, it is not phonetics, but pronunciation. It is not a conjugation, but rather exploring the possibilities of a verb, such as having (I have a sister, I have a house, I have…). “They learn to listen, to understand, to ask questions, to explain themselves.

For Sábat, this acceleration of the tongue will allow them to jump into the depths of the pool knowing how to swim. “We are not inventing anything new,” says Verdés, “it is what is unfolding in other European countries (the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden) that are also concerned about the high rate of school dropout among immigrants.” The dropout rate of young people between 18 and 25 who have not continued studying after ESO is close to 10% in Europe, but it is 25% for the foreign group.

Sociologists who are experts in education such as Miguel Ángel Alegre (Autonomous University of Barcelona) or Sheila González (University of Barcelona) share that the understaffing of reception classrooms in educational centers does not help the group of young immigrants. These were implemented decades ago coinciding with waves of intensive immigration, and have become a dispensable resource on the part of the administration and little care on the part of educational centers that do not always assign the most suitable teaching staff.

“The current model does not work and not only because of the lack of resources but also because the figure of the tutor, who is an educator, is very weak,” says González, an analyst on educational inequality. He is also confident that the Consorci program has incorporated the difficulties experienced by the linguistic acceleration pilot promoted in Reus and Vic in 2008 and ended up closing.

“My question is: does everyone have to go through these classrooms? I understand that it is useful for non-romance language students, but is it necessary for Spanish-speaking students? He also questions whether the isolation of the country’s adolescents is good. “Find moments of contact with other young people their age, even if they attend some extracurricular classes,” he recommends.

This is also a question raised by Alegre, project manager at the Fundació Jaume Bofill, who a few months ago proposed a plan to combat school dropouts. “I think that the linguistic and educational needs of each young person should be identified first to see the level of support that he needs,” he says. It also proposes incorporating a content-learning approach from other subjects, including guidance and support for families, and incorporating a liaison person with the educational center to prevent it from being “a ‘ghettoized’ bridge that doesn’t go anywhere.”

For González, dropping out of school has to do not only with the skills acquired but also with the fact of being accepted and integrated into the educational center. “Linguistic acceleration should be accompanied by other important measures such as accompaniment to migratory mourning, knowledge of the educational system and guidance,” she says.