Since the signing of the Educational Agreement, the CAPV Government has taken three measures in favour of the private non-university education network (it is not time to denounce the university status recognized to the private academy Euneiz). These three measures consist of lengthening concerts (concerts) for the six years, although it is known that the number of students in that period will decrease drastically, in a new planning decree that makes it easier for private centres to keep classrooms open, and now, in early August, the economic rise of the concertation modules (Teacher Modules, +6%, of the second cycle of Child Education, Bachillerato, +5%. have just been put to death. These three measures guarantee the tuition and economic viability of the concerted network, focusing on the privatization of the educational system and the segregation of students.
We say privatization, because it is private centers that have private ownership, free recruitment and the ability to choose students. However, they are supported by public money and their classicist character has been baptized as "social initiative". These centres are many in the CAPV (they do not have a similar weight in Europe anywhere, although they are now approaching in Madrid), some of them very large and entangled, but overcoming the rivalries between them, they have a great ability to unite all the employers at the time of soliciting public money and putting pressure on the administration.
We say segregation because it is undeniable that the vast majority of vulnerable students are in the public network and cannot enter the private network. As privatization increases, the school segregation we suffer in society also increases, with its serious consequences for social cohesion and the normalization of the Basque country.
We do not care whether the measures mentioned above go against the Educational Agreement or whether they are its direct consequences, our concerns are other:
There are political parties that are regarded as left-wing and sovereign, but at the moment, by signing an agreement, it seems that everyone agrees with the latest measures, because we have only seen a couple of tweets against these abuses. Knowing that two-thirds of the private network of the CAPV are religious centers and that most of the models A and B are concentrated in it, it is incomprehensible that it continues to strengthen disproportionately on the road to Lay, Feminist and Basque Education.
The former trade union majority in Euskal Herria claimed other types of social policies, and was committed to public services, because privatizations clash with the working class (understood broadly): it puts on sale fundamental rights, impoverishes the working conditions to turn the service into business, they are very expensive both in money and in social effects... At the moment, except for exceptions, we would not say that the unions are enthusiastic supporters of the public school.
Many families consider it normal that only students of the same socio-economic level should be grouped in schools, despite the greater diversity of neighborhoods and villages. Academic results and research warn us that the lack of plurality that we often regard as a privilege will only bring naivety and prejudice to children.
Half of the non-university students are in the public network, among which there are three quarters of the "vulnerable" students (with little money, with foreign origin, with special educational needs..); we believe that the public school must be defended, against abuses, against neoliberalism, against inorance and in favor of the Basque country and coexistence. Let's break complicity.
* Arantza Fernández de Garayalde, José Manuel Martínez Fernández and Eli Lamarka Iturbe representing the Basque Public School Harro Topagunea.