Actas da - Xunta de Galicia

Policyand the teaching of Frisian as a minority language
responsible for all laws and regulations, e.g. on the legal position of teachers or
examination standards. At the local level such measures are implemented by the
municipal authorities. The state Inspectorate has to monitor the practice of
education. The provincial government of Friesland has no role in education,
except for an advisory role and the authority to decide over exemptions from the
legal obligation to teach Frisian in primary schools. It can also promote Frisian
in education through language planning activities.
There are no central rules on language use in education, although Dutch is
assumed to be the language of instruction. The only exceptions are the
obligation that Frisian is a subject in all primary schools, is taught in basic
education in secondary schools and is offered by teacher training colleges in
Friesland. It can also be used as a medium of instruction.
A brief overview can be given of the position of Frisian at the different levels
of education (see also Ytsma and van der Schaaf, 2001).
3.1. Pre-primary education
Playgroups (for children of 2-4 years) are privately initiated and they are
supervised and financed by municipal government. There are around 250
playgroups, catering for some 8,000 pupils (1999 estimate). A recent survey
showed that most rural playgroups can be regarded as bilingual, while in urban
playgroups Frisian is only used occasionally (Boneschansker / Le Rütte 1999).
As a rule, the child is free to use its first language in the playgroup in individual
situations. It was found that Dutch was used much more often than Frisian as
medium of instruction during group activities.
Since 1989 the 'Stifting Pjutteboartersplak', a voluntary association, has
founded seven Frisian playgroups, which aim at a wholly Frisian play
environment for the young child. Currently (2001) they have an enrolment of
some 200 children.
3.2. Primary education
Children of 4-12 years (grades 1-8) do attend the primary schools. At this
level bilingual education has its longest tradition. From 1980 onwards, all
primary schools became legally obliged to teach Frisian. A total of 62,000
(1999) pupils receive Frisian lessons at some 500 schools.
A majority of primary schools spends on average one lesson (30-45 minutes)
per week on Frisian. As medium of instruction Frisian has a modest position,
even though over half the schools report to use Frisian as a medium of
instruction. In practice this is quite limited e.g. only for the teaching of
geography. Some of the schools that use Frisian more and may have a 'Frisian
day' or morning, mainly during the ‘expressive subjects’. Obviously, there are
no monolingual Frisian schools.
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