For the first time over 50% of schoolchildren study exclusively in Basque, in the Basque Autonomous Community

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)