Page 32 - ELG1903 Mar-Apr Issue 464

IATEFL special .

The man who put bilingualbilingual

schools on the agenda

Melanie Butler grabs a coffee with Xavier Gisbert

I We journalists love people like Xavier in the Spanish Embassies in both London and
don’t believe every school should be
bilingual. It would be a disaster.”
Washington DC.
But if he has ended up as a card- carrying
Gisbert, mastermind of Spain’s bilingual
school revolution: not only is he a master member of the elite, he certainly didn’t start
as one. Xavier Gisbert da Cruz, to give him his
of the pithy quote, but you can never quite full name, was born in Tangier, Morocco to a
predict what he is going to say. Spanish mother and a Portuguese father who
So why, I ask him over a cup of coffee at both migrated to the country when it was a
a recent conference in Estramadura, Spain, French Colony. His father died young, and the
would a completely bilingual school system be young Xavier had to fight his way up through
a disaster? Morocco’s Francophone education system, Students at a middle
school in Madrid.
“Families must have a choice.” making his way from a top lycée to taking a
If parental choice has the familiar ring of degree in French Philology at Complutense,
neoliberalism, that should be no surprise. Madrid’s most prestigious university. when they are at a bilingual school when they
Gisbert is a long-time member of Spain’s centre- “You’re a migrant child!” I exclaim. don’t have either of the languages?”
right Partido Popular, who left his job as a state “Why do you always keep talking about “This is not a problem in Madrid,” he sniffs.
school teacher of French to build a career as migrant children?” He’s right about that. A major research study
a civil servant and educational policy wonk, “Because I was a migrant child and we on student outcomes in Madrid’s bilingual
rising to become Director General of Evaluation are the canaries in the coalmine. Migrant school system, undertaken by the British
and Territorial Cooperation at the Ministry of children do worse in education generally but Council in 2017, found that in a sample of
Education and serving as Education Attaché we are better at languages. So how do they do nearly 2,000 state school students, 15 per cent

The results of Ma

32 March/April 2019