The Observatory on Linguistic Rights and the Group of Fathers and Mothers of Model D Mendigorría have registered four requests for meetings in the last five months to report on the opening of Model D of Mendigorría. In particular, the petitions have been addressed to the Navarre Education Advisor, Carlos Gimeno, and the Director-General of Education, Gil Sevillano. In September 2021-2022, the parents registered the pre-registration request in model D, expressing their wish strongly, and did not receive a response until Thursday.

Mendigorría’s children have been taking the bus every day for years and going to Puente la Reina school to learn Euskera. The Centre has specified that between 35% and 45% of schooled children under 12 years of age move outside the town to study in Model D.

After several delays, on Thursday he met with parents, the Observatory and those responsible for education, who have announced that the Model D option will be extended.

Unresolved doubts

However, all the doubts of the parents and the Observatory have not been clarified. Agurne Gaubeka, director of the Centre, said: "The case of Mendigorría can be extrapolated to several localities in the mixed or non-Vascophony zone established by law in Navarra. Well, the parents of these peoples do not know exactly what procedures and conditions they will have to comply with in order to be able to open model D in the schools of their peoples". They have therefore asked the Government of Navarra to clarify the criteria and conditions to ensure the possibility of studying in Basque throughout Navarre, as is the case with the Spanish immersion model. The opening of models D can be a firm step towards equality, cohesion and guaranteeing the rights of all the citizens of Navarre.

Moreover, in the case of Mendigorría, Gaubeka considers that prioritizing change in the Educative Map is worrying: changes cannot be in accordance with demands, but have become an obstacle to guaranteeing the rights of citizens. "Every time there is a demand for model D expansion in a village's school, will parents have to wait a year or more? And in the meantime, what? It is incomprehensible. The rulers have an obligation to guarantee the rights of all citizens, and to do so they have to use tools, not the other way around."

An example of this is the situation of children and young people with special needs. Often, the choice and linguistic needs of these students are not taken into account and have a direct influence on them and their environment. The Centre has also called on those responsible to resolve such situations as soon as possible.

Furthermore, given this situation caused by the lack of criteria, the Observatory has made contributions to the draft Foral Decree establishing the rules for the admission of students to public and concerted schools in Navarra (which is carried out with LOMLOE). The objective is to overcome the obstacles and barriers to the learning of Euskera, so that any family or child, whatever the situation or needs, can learn and live in Euskera.

On the one hand, the linguistic model of the Educational Map should not condition the right to free choice of the center in which they want to study. On the other hand, and in relation to this, the draft Foral Decree establishes that the applications must be completed electronically in the corresponding official model. Consequently, the new demands for expansion of model D would have no place and would not be properly received. Fathers and mothers who want model D, therefore, will not be able to express it, as happened with the fathers and mothers of Mendigorria. The Centre believes that these obstacles must be overcome and an offer must be made to guarantee linguistic rights.

Result of solidarity

Mendigorria has become a symbol of the barriers that exist in Navarre for the learning of the Basque country. The Observatory stressed that the insistence of parents was "exemplary and applauding", as "the new step has been achieved through activation and work".

The Observatory and the fathers and mothers of Mendigorría recall that this achievement would not be possible without the solidarity of many citizens: "It is the result of attorney Unai Iturriotz, the City Hall and the people of Mendigorría, of the long struggle and the help that has come from many parts of Euskal Herria."