Kilometroak Day has begun at the Ikastola Zubimusu in Zizurkil with the accession of representatives of the different institutions, ikastolas and citizen associations. After receiving the group and presenting the video clip they have prepared for this year’s edition, everyone has turned to Zizurkil’s Joxe Arrangi Square in groups of dozens. Bukalai's dantzaris have danced an aurresku by Alaitz Ormazabal. Amasarra journalist Odei Esnaola was in charge of presenting the story that Juan Kruz Igerabide has written for the Kilometroak 2020 festival. On behalf of Zubimusu Ikastola, he thanked all the representatives who approached Joxe Arrangi Square, and invited the mayor of Amasa-Villabona, Beatriz Unzue, and the mayor of Zizurkil, Iker Urruzola; Nerea Zumeaga, managing director of Zubimusu Markkel.

The mayors of Amasa-Villabona and Zizurkil have given a nod to the witness they took last year in Zarautz, saying that they keep what they said that day: “Continue to spread Basque culture and Basque culture. Our grandmother and our grandparents had the same goal. We have received from your hands that witness that is now depicted with a wooden image.” However, the two mayors have claimed that the witness of the Kilometroak is more than a piece of wood, as it represents “our identity, our feeling, our pride, our pride without pride, the popular character that gives us the language, a legacy that although small is large.”

Unzue and Urruzola also look to the future: “It will be important that the ikastolas and the peoples taking the witness of 2021 and the coming years have the task of continuing to drive the Basque Country and culture.” In the event that Zubimusu Ikastola takes the witness again in that future, both mayors have assured that “they will have all the support and disposition for work above or below the table.”

Time to value the importance of education

President Zubimusu Ikastola, Mikel Ugarte, said that “even today, for the ikastolas to move forward, the involvement of teachers and parents is essential”, and he asked the institutions to give the importance it needs to education. Thus, he added that those responsible must be aware that the education sector fulfils 100% of the gross domestic product, “researchers today and tomorrow, teachers, doctors, gardeners, sweepstakes, architects, conservatives, engineers, entrepreneurs… all and all, from the educational system”. The president of the Ikastola Zubimusu pointed out that “the needs of the entire educational system should be met when it comes to drawing up budgets, especially at this time when we are dealing with health”. He added that the communities of the ikastola will continue there, “in auzolan”, but Ugarte has asked for resources for it: “Please give him the importance that education really needs and has.”

Need for repair

Among other things, Artola has underlined the need to look at the repair and consequences of the health pandemic, “because what the ikastolas are suffering on a daily basis is not easy. It will not be easy to maintain this situation. Fear has entered us to the bottom, and the conditions of distancing and pedagogical conditions have influenced, and will have, the emotional, mental and physical development of children and adolescents”.

Artola also referred to the Basque country, as the six-month break has put on the table the needs, the problems and the educational difficulties. Thus, he added that from their responsibility and responsibility in the field of education they will deal more firmly than ever with the usual demand: “Immersion model throughout the educational system”. In this sense, he has claimed that everyone must assume their responsibility and responsibility in their field”.

Artola has asked for resources to move forward: “We are aware that together with the community education department there is an open framework, but it is urgent to know how much they will be and when they will have those resources.”

The lehendakari of the Ikastolas of Gipuzkoa has said that this crisis situation must be used to “strengthen the networks between the ikastolas, open new spaces for participation in our community, strengthen relations with the agents and radically transform our educational system along with citizenship”. “We need from everyone, from the Basque culture, from the culture, from the popular construction, from education and from the administration. We need each other, we have to take care of ourselves if we want a living Basque Country.”

Bridges

Gipuzkoa MEP Markel Olano has remarked the role of "bridge" played by ikastolas in the "quality of life of ikastola Zubimusu". “The ikastolas bind the citizenship of their surroundings, the different generations, people of different character. Thanks to these bridges, we built Euskal Herria, the Basque community. In the difficult times we live today, I am convinced that this condition of village or community will help us to move forward,” he said. Olano has reaffirmed his commitment to the Basque Country and thanked all those involved in the organization of the Kilometroak cycle for their work over and above the obstacles left by the pandemic.

Kilometroak 2020 ended with an invitation to celebrate the Ikastolatik Herrira event, which will take place on 13 November in the Kursaal of Donostia.

Tribute to grandma and grandparents

After the end of the Zizurkil act, at 12:00 hours, the Ikastola Txermingo de Villabona was held in the ganbara of the Ikastola Txermingo de Villabona the last act to finish the Kilometroak cycle. Thanks to grandmothers and grandparents and grandmothers have been warm: for all the work they have done and for what they continue to do, for the knowledge they have shown, for their struggle and for their effort. The leaders of Kilometroak 20 made it clear from the outset that they wanted to pay homage to grandma and grandparents throughout the year, “and even if it is said in insufficiency, we want to tell you that we love you,” said Ikastola president Mikel Ugarte Zubimusu: “It has a lot to teach the old and to learn the new, and we can apply that in many areas. For example, when it came to organizing the Kilometroak, we said over and over again that we had the new model as a base. But this new model drinks from the source of the old model, as most of the goals it had in those early years remain intact. We value the new, but the new comes from the old: without old there is nothing new. Our sincere thanks to all those who in those early years created and promoted the ikastolas and many other movements.” The show had the interview of AMONA and nieto, the sound of the txalaparta, the performance of the dantzaris, the irrintzis... At the end of the event, the music video of the Kilometroak 20 was offered to the attendees, including the former students of the ikastola Zubimusu Nagore Arin, Irune Alfonso and Irene Larrañaga.

Finally, there has been a gap in music. The singer Olaia Toral, a former student of Zubimusu, has also offered, with the help of the guitar and with a very nice voice, many well-known songs of the Basque songwriter. The Kilometroak 20 cycle of Zubimusu Ikastola has ended with a warm intonation and performance of attendees.