In San Sebastian (Gipuzkoa) last Friday, one of the most important agents of the Basque sector and the educational community appeared to make a joint reading of the new CAPV Education Act in view of the risk of maintaining linguistic models. They call on political parties to leave behind the linguistic models of the past and withdraw the future: “Providing the Education Law with the contents and specifications necessary to make it a guarantee and a key to the Euskaldunization of future generations, putting at the centre the generalized teaching model centered on the Basque and the Basque curriculum”.

The process of drafting the new Education Act in Álava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa has been underway for two and a half years, reaching the final round. Council members have considered this "critical moment". He said at his parliamentary hearing last June: That the new Education Law needs “precision” to be an “instrument of normalization and social cohesion of the Basque Country”. However, the political parties have underlined that some of the amendments presented below are precisely the opposite. They are deeply concerned about the setback.

They say that maintaining models will mean leaving “thousands of students without euskaldunizar” in future generations. Impairing the normalization of Euskera and hindering social cohesion and coexistence. They note that the language model system created 40 years ago is “deeply discriminatory”.

At the “critical time” of the debate, the Council and the other actors have called on political parties to “act responsibly”, providing guarantees to adequately address the challenges facing the future of the Basque Country and the Basque Country.

The look of the future

The Council proposes a “long-term view” so that in a few decades the Basque society will be Basque and multilingual, that is, so that the new generations will dominate the two official languages and at least one foreign language. To do so, they assure that “pedagogical innovation”, “transmission of Basque culture”, “euskaldunizar non-regulated education and the school environment” and “direct more resources to those who least Euskera have” will be necessary.

However, they know that this is not something that can be executed overnight, but a process that will require a “time for transition”. They stress that this is a commitment to deepen the cohesion and equality of Basque society.