In response to the numerous statements of the new Education Advisor, Begoña Pedrosa, Law 17/2023 on Education will be implemented at the beginning of the course, approved in Parliament with the sole support of the PNV and the PSE. This implementation will entail the application of new precepts and decrees that regulate what the new law defines as "Public Educational Basque Service".

The truth is that the previous Department of Education has unilaterally imposed that law long before it was adopted, of course, a large part of society, all the unions and many educational agents have condemned for being privatisation. The unilateral publication of the Orders and Decrees to grant new advantages to the private school as compared to the public has been a constant. Proof of this is that several orders in force since 2023/2024 have been approved in 2022.

On the one hand, the Order of Educational Concerts, which reduced the minimum number of students to enter classrooms from 18 to 13. On the other hand, the Ordinances of admission and schooling of students outside the ordinary process of schooling, which establish the criteria for the referral of "vulnerable" students from the public school to the concerted one. It is also worth noting the process begun on 24 July of amending the Law on Budgets of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country for the financial year 2024, which will contribute 68 million more to the concerted network.

It is clear that the new law and its pioneers seek to privatise the Basque educational system, giving the concerted centres the responsibilities, resources, rights and obligations of the public school.

As if that were not enough, they intend to introduce the rules, values and logics of the private sector into the functioning of the Basque public school. It is not just a question of equalising the two networks, but of creating an educational system based on commercial principles that establishes the business functioning of public schools. The Education Counselor has pointed out that the Department is working on the implementation of the "Decree of Autonomy of School Centers" so that the directors can propose and decide the profile of the professional they need based on their pedagogical project. In other words, the Basque public school will move from a democratic and collaborative model to a managerial and meritocratic model.

The formulas that the Basque educational system needs to guarantee equal opportunities and the Euskaldunization and inclusion of our students differ from those that are presented to us. The new counsellor pointed out a few days ago that a strategic plan will be put in place for the Basque public school. Is that your plan? In our view, the plan has been in place for a long time and the objectives are not geared to what they say, but to something very different.

Without euphemisms, giving priority to the Basque Public School, ensuring the democratic functioning of collaborative work centres and substantially improving the resources and working conditions of working women are indisputable pillars that the Department of Education is abandoning and should be rethought.

Yolanda Porres, Haizea Arbide and Javi Kerexazu, Steilas Union.