“For public education. Following the banner “No to privatization” thousands of people have met in Bilbao on Saturday afternoon. As Gotzon Hermosilla explained in Berria, when the final act of mobilisation has ended in Arriaga Square, the last demonstrators were still in Circular Square. The demonstration has been convened or supported by dozens of educational agents, including the unions LAB, STEILAS, CCOO, ESK, CNT and ELA, as well as 127 schools, children's schools and associations of parents.

A public school, Euskaldun and inclusive

On the arrival of the head to the Plaza del Arriaga, the demonstration has been mitigated by some clowns, and later representatives of the Euskal Eskola Publikoa Harro platform have taken the floor. Attendees are congratulated in the first place: “Today we have met to say that we are proud of the Basque Public School and to mobilize for public education”: They have explained that the Basque educational system, “public half and privatized half”, is opposed to the public school, which means “segregation” and “social fracture”. “The two educational networks are not the same and cannot be equated in their political treatment and protection. The public school is the only inclusive network that contributes the most to social cohesion and that more Euskalduniza and Euskalduniza”.

The rapporteurs summarised the demands of the platform at a joint press conference. The Administration requires that the public school be given “absolute priority”: “We demand a unique, public, Euskaldun, inclusive school.” They also call for the restriction of private and concerted education and for the promotion of a single model: “The model of immersion in Euskera must be generalized and private centers that do not have Euskaldunicen and that have linguistic models that act against integration must not be financed with public money”.

Basque Government and Bildarratz

The Euskal Eskola Publikoa Harro platform has directly challenged the Basque Government and the Education Advisor, Jokin Bildarratz. They are urged to develop a “consensual regulation” published by educational institutions and to take into account all these demands and values at the time when a new Education Agreement is to be made at the CAPV: “At this time when a new Education Agreement is to be made at the CAPV”