NOT ENOUGH CATALANS TO MERIT A SCHOOL

The Madrid regional government announced last week that it will not be able to make a good a promise by regional president Esperanza Aguirre to open a Catalan school in the capital because of a lack of demand. Regional education councillor, Lucia Figar, said only 11 families had requested that their children be taught in Catalan next year. She said that as the requests corresponded to different levels the regional government would try to give the families an option by opening a section in an established school so that those who wanted to study in Catalan could do so. Sra Aguirre made her promise in response to plans by the Catalan regional government to make Catalan the main language in schools there, with Spanish being studied as a foreign language.