Donostia, Friday, 16 September 2005 Contributed by Edu Lartzanguren
Basque children are back at school this week, and, for the first time, more than half of them will be studying exclusively in Euskara, the Basque language, in the Basque Autonomous Community.
It is, indeed, an achievement. Twenty five years ago 78% of the children were studying only in Spanish. But things are not so bright for Euskara as they seem: the Basque Autonomous Government is keeping the three tier system, A, B and D, even if its own surveys show that only Model D (all subjects are taught in Basque, except Spanish and English) guarantees that the students are proficient in Euskara when they reach secondary.
In Nafarroa (Navarre) and the three provinces under French administration, Basque teaching is between 20% and 40%, and teachers have accused their administrations of hindering Basque education, in spite of the fact that the number of students wanting to go to Basque-medium schools increases every year.
Model D has been chosen by the parents of more than 90% of three year old infants in the Basque Autonomous Community. The rest chose Model B, where some of the subjects are taught in Basque and some in Spanish. Model A, teaching in Spanish with Euskara only as a subject, has become marginal.
“Only 53% of the students in Model D seems very few to us, we expected more”, a representative of the ikastola (Basque schools) organization Partaide told Eurolang. Partaide explained why there are just 53% studying in Basque: even if Model D is being chosen for almost every three year old child, when the girls and boys finish primary education at 13-14, some parents transfer them to religious schools seeking tighter discipline for under-performing teenagers. Schools run by the Catholic Church use Model A entirely. In addition, there is very little (10%) teaching in Euskara in professional training.
The model system has come under increasingly strong criticism, and many voices are calling for it to be changed. “It was set up following political criteria, not social or linguistic criteria”, says a Partaide spokesperson.
Keeping Model B and A will mean “that thousands of students will not be Basque-speaking”, says Juankar Aritxabaleta, speaker for Sortzen-Ikasbatuaz, another ikastola organization.
Nafarroa - no classroom, no teachers
Only one of the students at the Patxi Larrainzar public school in Nafarroa crossed the gates of the public school on the first school day. The other 600 attended a protest in front of the Government of Navarre buildings in Iruñea (Pamplona). More than 30% of the parents in Nafarroa have chosen Model D for their 3 year olds. It is 0.2% more than last year, but parents groups say that the executive, governed by the UPN (the Popular Party’s branch in Navarre), keeps limiting the resources assigned to Basque teaching. 27% have started learning in the equivalent of Model A. In Navarre, 42% of children will not be taught Euskara at all.
“There is no classroom and no teacher for 200 students in Patxi Larrainzar School, because the government has refused to accept that more and more parents are choosing Euskara”, said Aritxabaleta. The parents group point out that at nearby Cardenal Ilundain School there were 10 empty classrooms, and three times more space for students. Cardenal Ilundain is part of an experiment of the Government of Navarre: students are taught in Spanish and English, and no Euskara is taught, even as a subject. The parents asked the Government to let them use the empty rooms, but the executive turned down the request and declared that there was “plenty of room, and no problem” at the Patxi Larrainzar school.
Worse situation in Iparralde
Examples show an even worse situation in the three provinces under French administration. Numbers of students who choose Euskara increase every year, but representatives of the ikastolas state that the French government “denies the resources that Basque needs in the name of egalité”.
“French authorities do not take into account neither the organization of the ikastolas nor the special needs of the language”, said Ixabel Xarriton, president of Seaska (‘cradle’), a Basque language organization. Paradoxically enough it is teachers of French that Basque schools need, but these are being denied by the government. Seaska had demanded part-time teacher posts for six schools but got none. As a consequence, students of different ages have to be mixed in the same class. In Aiherra (Nafarroa Beherea, Low Navarre), a single teacher will have to cope with 24 students between 3 and 7 years old.
The French government argues that teacher posts are assigned following a model for “equality between regions”, and that model does not take into account any other language except French. France has signed the European Charter of Regional or Minority Languages but refuses to ratify it.
Just 22% of the 45,579 students in the three northern provinces are taught Euskara. Of them, 6.7% have Euskara as a subject, 11.7% have half of the subjects taught in Basque and the other half in French. Just 4.3% are taught only in Euskara, with French as a subject. In primary school Basque is stronger: 35.5% are taught Euskara, and the “bilingual” model reaches to 24.1%. (Eurolang © 2005)
Tuesday, 20 September 2005
Basque minister explains Ibarretxe plan to Bretons
Brignogan, Monday, 05 September 2005 by Edu Lartzanguren
Esther Larrañaga, the Environment Secretary of the Basque Government, spoke of a “Basque republic in the European Union” in front of 200-300 people representing stateless nations in Europe.
The speech was part of an event held August 23 in the town of Brignogan in France’s Finistère region (Pen ar-Bed or “the world’s end” to the Bretons). The event was organised by the Toulouse-based Régions et Peuples Solidaires and financed by the European Parliament through the European Free Alliance group.
Larrañaga, a member of the social democratic party Eusko Alkartasuna (EA), defined her party as “pro-independence” and declared its main objective to be “a Basque republic in the European Union.”
It is not clear if Larrañaga’s pro-independence views are shared by her party’s coalition partner, the Christian democrat PNV (Basque Nationalist Party). PNV’s president, Josu Jon Imaz, declared earlier in August that the idea of Basque independence should be substituted by the concept of “co-sovereignty with Spain”. Imaz’s statement aroused dissent in his own party.
[Stateless] nations must take part in the building of Europe, said Larrañaga, “but for that, their own political awareness must be recognised though the right to self-determination”. Besides the Breton, the audience included representatives of almost every stateless nation in Europe. Larrañaga elaborated on the current political status of the Basque Autonomous Community, which only includes three of the seven Basque Provinces, and declared it “worn out” after 30 years. She explained that the successive governments in Madrid have failed to fulfil the so-called Gernika Statute. “The time is ripe to renew it,” she said.
After the speech, Bretons in the audience asked Larrañaga how the Basques had managed to safeguard their language since the end of the Franco dictatorship. Larrañaga answered that there is still a lot to be done to strengthen the Basque language, Euskara. However, she explained how political autonomy directly impacts the amount of money available for implementing language policy, since the Basque government collects tax directly from the population and negotiates the amount to be transferred each year to Madrid. Members of the audience from other stateless nations expressed frustration that in their countries many projects to promote their languages come to a halt due to lack of funds.
But the main theme was the Statute of Free Association, the so-called “Ibarretxe plan” — the proposal of Basque Prime Minister Juan Jose Ibarretxe to grant the Basque region free association status with Spain. The audience was excited by the idea that it might mean de facto independence, as suggested by international media. Ibarretxe’s plan, explained Larrañaga, has two main points: “territoriality”, refering to the seven Basque provinces, with Navarre and the provinces in Iparralde deciding their degree of collaboration, and the right of the Basques to self-determination.
Larrañaga´s representatives told Eurolang that they pleased with the Breton's response to the speech. They felt that there was an urge in the international audience to get first hand information about Euskal Herria (Basque country). And the information came, ironically, from the Breton Pen ar-Bed — the world’s end.(Eurolang © 2005
Esther Larrañaga, the Environment Secretary of the Basque Government, spoke of a “Basque republic in the European Union” in front of 200-300 people representing stateless nations in Europe.
The speech was part of an event held August 23 in the town of Brignogan in France’s Finistère region (Pen ar-Bed or “the world’s end” to the Bretons). The event was organised by the Toulouse-based Régions et Peuples Solidaires and financed by the European Parliament through the European Free Alliance group.
Larrañaga, a member of the social democratic party Eusko Alkartasuna (EA), defined her party as “pro-independence” and declared its main objective to be “a Basque republic in the European Union.”
It is not clear if Larrañaga’s pro-independence views are shared by her party’s coalition partner, the Christian democrat PNV (Basque Nationalist Party). PNV’s president, Josu Jon Imaz, declared earlier in August that the idea of Basque independence should be substituted by the concept of “co-sovereignty with Spain”. Imaz’s statement aroused dissent in his own party.
[Stateless] nations must take part in the building of Europe, said Larrañaga, “but for that, their own political awareness must be recognised though the right to self-determination”. Besides the Breton, the audience included representatives of almost every stateless nation in Europe. Larrañaga elaborated on the current political status of the Basque Autonomous Community, which only includes three of the seven Basque Provinces, and declared it “worn out” after 30 years. She explained that the successive governments in Madrid have failed to fulfil the so-called Gernika Statute. “The time is ripe to renew it,” she said.
After the speech, Bretons in the audience asked Larrañaga how the Basques had managed to safeguard their language since the end of the Franco dictatorship. Larrañaga answered that there is still a lot to be done to strengthen the Basque language, Euskara. However, she explained how political autonomy directly impacts the amount of money available for implementing language policy, since the Basque government collects tax directly from the population and negotiates the amount to be transferred each year to Madrid. Members of the audience from other stateless nations expressed frustration that in their countries many projects to promote their languages come to a halt due to lack of funds.
But the main theme was the Statute of Free Association, the so-called “Ibarretxe plan” — the proposal of Basque Prime Minister Juan Jose Ibarretxe to grant the Basque region free association status with Spain. The audience was excited by the idea that it might mean de facto independence, as suggested by international media. Ibarretxe’s plan, explained Larrañaga, has two main points: “territoriality”, refering to the seven Basque provinces, with Navarre and the provinces in Iparralde deciding their degree of collaboration, and the right of the Basques to self-determination.
Larrañaga´s representatives told Eurolang that they pleased with the Breton's response to the speech. They felt that there was an urge in the international audience to get first hand information about Euskal Herria (Basque country). And the information came, ironically, from the Breton Pen ar-Bed — the world’s end.(Eurolang © 2005
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