The Government of Navarra is cutting down the Basque language school groups
- Twelve professors will direct 2,040 works and perform oral tests of 680 students in 18 days, “without considering that the ideal goal would be for each work to be directed by two professors to have a second opinion”. The complaint made by Jaume Gelabert, Euskera professor at the Language School of Pamplona, reveals a deeper gap: "Basque groups are being closed, working well, with enough students, we don't know why criteria."
The students who have attended the language school throughout the course and the one who is presented directly to the exam will be attended these days in Pamplona, among which there is a large part of the CAV, since the Basque Government has abolished the possibility of carrying out a free examination to certify level C1 in Basque and has limited the number of free students to present themselves to the rest of the courses in the CAV. In Navarra, however, there are no limits and only an assistant to guide the work of all students has been incorporated into the work team. Ideally, each work should be directed by two professors, “but with all that is impossible, we have time for one reading. In the oral test, the jury consisted of three people, now two,” says ARGIA Gelabert.
"We want to do things well because, on the one hand, students need a degree and is often a way to a job, but on the other hand, we want to guarantee the Basque level"
“We want to do things well because, on the one hand, students need a degree and is often a way to a job, but on the other hand, we want to guarantee the Basque level, because our degree allows, for example, teaching, and it is our responsibility to ensure that level”. However, the limited personal resources “affect the quality of the amendments and we will of course try to ensure that the level of the student is the one we have decided, but if we had more time and more resources, the evaluation would be more effective”.
The teacher also questions the tests the students themselves should perform: in addition to listening and reading, they should do three works on the same day. “In a single afternoon they have to make a great marathon, as the C1 exam has passed four hours, a barbarity, and we think that this will also influence the final result of the students.”
"Euskera is the language here, but I don't know if they are very clear, maybe that's the background."
Why are the Basque groups being reduced?
At one point, from the language school the number of groups to be offered was decided and now the Department of Education decides the closed group at what level. And, according to Jaume Gelabert, each year they have fewer Basque learning groups (and therefore fewer and fewer teachers), because the groups are closed by the government of Navarra. Similarly, in the School of Presential Languages of Navarra, in Tudela, many groups have been closed and the Basque department has a single professor.
"We don't know why these kinds of decisions are being made, because groups that work well are being closed, with enough students. And if the argument fails, you can't run a public language school as a private enterprise. The Basque language is here, but I don't know if what they have very clear, maybe that's the background," Gelabert said.
