One week before the new school term is due to start, there is uncertainty regarding a key element of the Catalan education model, the use of the Catalan language for the large majority of teaching in public schools (read article in Castilian here, La Vanguardia). Following the ruling last week by the Superior Court of Catalunya that schools must introduce Castilian as a 'vehicle' language within two months, doubts have arisen regarding the implications for the new school year just when everything is ready for pupils' return. The Generalitat's councillor for education, Irene Rigau, sought to calm the education sector yesterday. "The term will start as normal," she said, during the inauguration of a new nursery in Cornellà de Terri. This suggests that the Catalan government is going to ignore the ruling and not make space for more hours of Castilian in the public schools of the region at this point. Rigau's department is planning to appeal the ruling this week (they have until Wednesday to do so), and hopes that the legal arguments that they present to the court will be sufficient to put a halt to the demands of the court. "It's good that they [those in the education sector] know that in the term that's starting, it won't be necessary to introduce any changes because the law that governs it [the current model of linguistic immersion, by which one language, Catalan, is the principal vehicle for teaching in] is completely supported by the courts," Rigau added.