The unequal distribution of students in the CAPV educational system is not the origin of school segregation, but the consequence. It is therefore pointless to try to solve the problem without entering the source that has generated it. The enrollment incidence these days is significant.

School segregation is the result of the educational policies of the years:

1-Private education has been fully coordinated at all stages (now from 2 to 18 years) above what the law sets (we are the community that earns the most money).

2-The educational planning for enrollment approves every year the offer of places of concerted centers, even though there are enough in the public school (one example: in Zarautz the public school has offered 72 places for 154 boys and girls, and the private supply of the locality has been 172, to be able to receive all the demand! ).

3-The economic fees charged by the centres remain authorised, even if they are illegal.

4- Each and every private centre that has applied for consultation has received its agreement regardless of its characteristics.

In short, the administration has been leaving the “field” free for years, without taking action, looking to the other side, consciously using liberal policies. We have been leaving the entire supply of places and teaching according to the logic of the market, making private education easier and, consequently, generating segregation. It's no accident, it's not complex.

Against this or against, the separation of children from the most vulnerable families is a pointless, irrelevant measure. If one chooses to live together among different people, one should also distribute the students who are not in a vulnerable situation. The separation of vulnerable students, and not all students, besides being ineffective, is a discriminatory measure, generates inequalities and poses a risk of stigmatization, transforming them into goods. In public school there is no one left, we do not want to distribute children, we want to educate everyone.

The symptom does not resolve without going to the origin. We expressed this at the press conference we offered last February in Bilbao: “If they really believed that the public school needs a priority, the acceptance of the student body should be made according to the classrooms that make the public offer of area, neighborhood or village, progressively reducing the educational concerts as a logical consequence of the rational planning of the offer of schools, achieving a balanced schooling and guaranteeing the rights of all children”. We need fair planning and more rational use of public money.

School segregation will not improve with the distribution of vulnerable students, even less eliminating the public school and referring to the other network. It is not a question of dividing a type of student body, but of building a balanced and strong network of public schools. The strengthening and prioritization of public schools, the guarantee of public places anywhere and the non-concertation of private lines in places where this offer is sufficient will be effective weapons against school segregation and social injustice.

The director of the Catalan federation of AFFACE (parent associations), Lidon Gasull, during his recent visit, stated that “All children must be distributed randomly and centrally so that they are not shared.” And it proposes three measures: 1- Limit the supply of school places, prohibiting the over-supply of politico-concerted teaching. 2- Limit to the maximum the right of families to choose the centre. 3- The public school should be totally free.

We believe that too.

José Manuel Martínez Fernández and Eli Lamarka Iturbe. Members of the Basque Country Eskola Puplikoa Harro.