On 13 November 2018, the list of jobs recently approved by the City of Andoain was published in the Official Gazette of Gipuzkoa. It was the result of a process of stabilisation and adaptation of jobs to new needs, which allowed significant changes in language profiles. Compared to the previous list of jobs, language requirements decreased by 36 jobs. In 15 of them the linguistic profile 4 becomes 3 and in 21 the profile 3 becomes 2.

Outside the posts closely related to language, linguistic profile 4 was retained to a single place of upper and middle grade, to the post of secretary, who said that the replacement of the
city hall before the courts required a higher level. One of the novel and principal arguments used in the comprehensive technical report to justify the changes was that the language level required in the Administration should be closely related to the academic qualifications required for the performance of the post. In other words, if the academic training required of a worker for the administrative post is to have completed Baccalaureate or Vocational Training and he is recognised as having competence at level B2 (equivalent to the Administration’s linguistic profile 2) for completing half or more of that academic training (as recognized by Decree 47/2012), it is not logical to apply for a higher or lower level in the Administration.

The same logic is used to designate the linguistic profiles of the upper and middle level technical posts. That is, if at least one person has studied law or economics or architecture or engineering in Euskera in part, and at the end of these studies he has been awarded the C1 certificate (equivalent to EGA and the administration’s linguistic profile 3), how is it requested to be higher?

Reasoning seems logical to the naked eye, perhaps with Castilian and French from Burgos or Bordeaux respectively. The truth is that in a socio-linguistic area where there is a minority language, like ours, the school has significant achievements in the knowledge of the language, and even smaller, when that school has not emerged as a system of immersion. Numerous studies and studies in recent years have shown that the results are not the most appropriate – Professor Mikel Basabe provided concrete data in the opinion article published in the ARGIA issue of 16 October. However, instead of addressing the shortcomings of the educational system by the branches and putting measures and resources to improve outcomes, it is a way for them to be considered normal and for the speed of the administration’s Euskaldunisation to decrease.

After 2018, sales resounding in 2022 and, in the name of a fairer language policy, it is intended to facilitate a little more access to public administration. The platform “Euskara Denontzat, for an Basque without barriers” has launched a programme that includes the need to reformulate technical proposals of twelve measures, administrative profiles and ways of accrediting them. I have no doubt that there is something to improve on accreditations, but that does not mean that we have to lower the levels of competition and give access to those who are unable to develop their work in Basque.

We must not forget that the objective set thirty years ago is not only to serve the citizen in Basque, who has not yet been achieved, but also to do so in Basque, which only some administrations have achieved. But if the results are mediocre, it is not what the members of this new platform say, that is, because things have been raised with a wrong vision and excessively demanding demands, but quite the opposite, because we have spent 30 years with a decision and planning like the law. In order to move forward, we must be more rigorous, not only with the one who wants to be a public employee, but also with the political leader who at the moment has no linguistic obligation. There are models.