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Learning in Basque

Most people interested in Nabarra and its truncated territories under Spanish jurisdiction tend to believe that, since the death of the dictator Francisco Franco, children and young people in Araba, Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa, and residual Nabarra are taught in Basque. Or that at least, when they finish compulsory education, they have learned Basque. This is not true.

Compulsory education applies to Basque children between the ages of 6 and 14, the school period that determines the command of their language.

In Nabarra's truncated territories under French jurisdiction, Lapurdi, Zuberoa and Behe-Nafarroa, only 1.4% of the children in school are taught Basque in private Basque schools or Ikastolas. These schools are funded by the Basque nationalist community. On the other hand, public and private schools as well as religious schools, teach children in French only.

In Nabarra, Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, students of these ages can be enrolled in one of the three types of education available--One in Spanish only (58.3% of the total students in compulsory education); one in Spanish and Basque (19.5% of the total students); and one in Basque only (22.2% of the total students). These numbers were taken from the 1991-1992 enrollment report including public, private, religious schools, and ikastolas.

This means that 58.3% of the children who finish compulsory education at the age of 14 in the Basque territories within Spain do not know Basque. It is important to note that the majority of children finish their education without knowing Basque. The seriousness of these data, totally unknown by most European countries, is compensated, at least, partially, by the fact that the proportion of students that learn in Basque has been timidly but steadly growing during the last few years.

There are other symptoms bringing hope for the recovery of the Basque language. The bilingual network in Nabarra's territories in France has been expanded from three to four hours of instruction of certain subjects in Basque per week. The lyceum Maurice Ravel in Donibane-Lohizune has been chosen by the French Education Ministry for a pilot project. Students will be able to take exams in history and geography in their own language. Enrollment in the bilingual public and private education network has gone up from 1,600 in 1995 to almost 3,000 in 1996.

A public television station in Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, which can be seen in some areas of Nabarra and Behe-Nafarroa, Lapurdi and Zuberoa, as well as half a dozen radio stations spread throughtout the Basque territories, cater exclusively to a Basque-speaking audience. Since 1990, a newspaper, Egunkaria, is published in Basque, adding to the already existing magazines in the Basque language.

Bilingualism is officially recognized only in Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, and upper Nabarra. Nonetheless, the officialdom of Basque in these territories often remained on ink and paper and governments have failed to implement it in practice in many respects. The most significant example reflecting this lack of implementation is the public Basque university of Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, the `Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea/Universidad del Pais Vasco, UPV/EHU, with Spanish mainly the language of instruction. A significant number of student strikes have taken place in recent years in the various campuses of EHU to call the attention of the regional government on the fact that academic staff at EHU is ill-prepared to meet the growing demand for courses taught in Basque.

In in spite of the growing popular support for the Basque language, Basque is presenty weak and fragile and cannot meet the challenges of the communications age without favourable political support.

Sources: Jokin Apaletegi, Euskadi en guerre (Ekin, 1987); Luis Nuñez Astrain, Opresión y defensa del euskera, (Txertoa, 1977); Manex Goyhenetche, L'opression culturelle française en Pays Basque Nord (Elkar, 1974); Marianne Heiberg, The Making of the Basque Nation (Cambridge University Press, 1989).