argia.eus
INPRIMATU
Education system focused on Euskera
Jexux Larrañaga Arriola 2023ko azaroaren 20a

If the Education Act has to ensure sufficient knowledge of the official languages (level B2 at the end of the ESO) and once the current models do not guarantee that knowledge, as has been demonstrated by various research – doctoral theses, educational reports… – it is assumed that the incorporation of the amendment to the Legislative Agreement represents a significant setback to maintain the model system. On the one hand, it does not facilitate the progress of social cohesion and, on the other, it moves away from the basic principle of concertation of linguistic planning, that is, it neglects both the theoretical framework that supports the transformation of the educational leap and the research background. The attempt to perpetuate the models brings into play the possibility of agreeing linguistic policy and fills with dark light the strategic projection of the path undertaken since education.

To clarify the issue of linguistic models, it is necessary to prioritize the guarantee of the objectives of the students' linguistic knowledge established by law, or the exhaustion of the model system agreed 40 years ago to achieve these objectives. The debate is limited to diverting the issue when the conclusion is clear: the perpetuation of models will not allow an effective and sufficient knowledge of the two official languages in the final objectives of education provided by the Education Act.

It is therefore necessary to take a step further in achieving the objectives set by law. And we have to take the leap to a global model of conciliation of the inclusive language, in which each center, depending on its sociolinguistic context and the characteristics of the students it attends, must adopt the most effective measures to enhance the use of the most disadvantaged language, determine the school itinerary of students and reach its limits of Euskaldunization. Linking the local and attending to the educational task to be carried out in each center.

This school task involves the centrality and obligatory nature of the linguistic projects of the Centre for all the centres offered by the Education Service. Centres that receive public money, which have a social obligation in relation to linguistic objectives: achieving these objectives is a major social challenge for the Basque education system.

The educational system focused on Euskera is first concrete in the legal agreement that recognizes Euskera as its own language. In other words, one of the official languages is one's own language and is also in a situation of diglossia; and the situation of minorities living in the minority language is added to the cultural and linguistic diversity of the languages surrounding it, placing the school in a very complex situation.

We can already say that social reality exceeds the current system of models, and beyond the system of models, a new theoretical framework of transformation is built, that is, a multilingual framework centered on the Basque language is the new framework of the twenty-first century of language teaching. And this has educational consequences when it comes to attending to the languages of the center.

It is therefore clear that the three languages are the vehicular language, but that the Basque language is the main language of our educational system. That is the axis of the Basque Country. However, to increase the presence and use of the minority language, all educational areas and learning resources are necessary to give more Basque to those centers and/or students who are in a more vulnerable situation.

The current school, on its way to the creation of qualified speakers, needs a reinforced learning model with predominance of the Basque country: to convert current models D into reinforced models D; to convert models B into models D; and to delete models A. This path must be made with the necessary changes in the didactics of languages and in the sociolinguistic strategies, carrying out the process transformation.

In addition, to be a trained speaker, it will be necessary to work on other aspects and competencies, both in attitude towards language, adherence, respect and cultural motivation. Knowing that cultural motivation is one of the main motivating values for the acquisition of full linguistic competence, since the cultural world of reference is the necessary symbolic fuel of a conception of the world.

The design of the new school paradigm must take into account at least three aspects: one, the knowledge and sufficient capacity of the own language, guaranteeing the minimum linguistic ability to live comfortably at the end of the school period; two, the development and transmission capacity of the cultural dimension of the new curriculum, in addition to the teaching of language, the ability to transmit a world of meaning from the school; and three, the complex sociolinguistic reasoning, as sufficient resources.

Jexux Larrañaga Arriola