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INPRIMATU
About the Euskaldunization of our educational system
Jexux LarraƱaga Arriola 2022ko azaroaren 25a

Currently, although the teaching of model D has become widespread in the CAPV, the measures carried out show a low average linguistic competence of the students, the level that must reach all the students at the end of the compulsory schooling is not reached, and the acquired competence does not reflect a balanced proportion of its use, as its use is lower. In addition, there is the question of the utility of the school's linguistic models and, for many, the failure of the current models, as indicators of the low level of euskaldunization and of the diglosic social situation.

For example, the models of Euskaldunization based on the mere teaching of language have been more conducive to the teaching of a decontextualized language. At the same time that the instrumental motivation for Basque learning has been imposed on society, the desire for cultural and integrational motivation has been reduced and distorted. Consequently, Euskaldunization has been reduced to the teaching of a language based on formal academic competence, without being able to reach an enthusiastic relationship with the Basque Country. However, we can affirm that, in addition to the low competence, language is an adherence with a weak identity that our educational system achieves, that is, it mainly generates bilingual Castilan-speaking speakers.

This shows that, on the one hand, the lack of cultural contextualization in the language teaching process and, on the other, the weakness of the cultural transmission, the rupture between both languages/cultures has increased in the school/society that needs to intervene manually. Moreover, the situation of permanent social breakdown adds an added difficulty to the process of Euskaldunization of our young people, as they cannot achieve the identity derived from the use of language, that is, the cultural world of reference of language and linguistic identity.

However, the language faced with the need for a cultural force is identity. Because when we talk about the Euskaldunity of our students, we are not just talking about the formal academic dimension of competence in Euskera, but about our educational capacity to capture the flow of a character and generate a welcoming/stable adhesion; we are talking about the capacity of the values and attractions that the cultural components of a cultural flow have. And at the same time, of our ability to convey that power of will and life to the new generations. This educational capacity acts the success and value of the educational system, as in the reciprocity and complementarity of the use of language the cultural identity of our young people in the future (vasquity), which will grow only in the subject of the speaker.

Look, the contribution made by the educational system goes beyond the social normalization of language, and if it is proposed only in terms of linguistic competence it will not be viable, because it is evident that this has not had good results, that is, keeping the proposed Euskaldunization models, we can conclude that the competence in Basque students will go further. However, the extension of the generalized, inclusive and unique educational model in Basque to the entire educational fabric is an urgent decision of the educational agents.

The contribution and role of the school, beyond the acquisition of the formal academic level of the language, is also found in the educational capacity to transmit the flow of an identity (self-awareness). This ability to generate identity should be promoted not only from the formal academic knowledge, but also from the validity of the cultural society, focusing and guaranteeing the elements of the Basque culture, creating the conditions to work and live in Basque, a challenge for the whole society. This could be the guarantee of the social context to achieve a more stimulating Euskaldunization, through the manual intervention of the language/culture and the school/society, building the socio-functional public space from the Basque Country and contributing to the normalization of the use of the native language.

In fact, the school has been a significant part of an integral utopia in the history of its people to achieve full cultural vascuity, and, although its activity is developed in an unsuspected society, the achievements along the way have evolved reaffirming that they are a small social revolution. Along the road with its benefits and ailments, with its achievements and voids, is the fundamental contribution of integration to the challenge of long breathing for the recovery of the tongue.