The Department of Education of the Basque Government and Eusko Ikaskuntza have reached a social pact to tackle school segregation. A conference on educational segregation was held in Bilbao on Saturday, in which the report Characterisation and shared understanding of segregation, proposals for managing challenges, was presented.

The report says that segregation "breaks equal opportunities and creates inequality", and that it must be tackled in order to achieve a society that focuses on "social justice and equity". She says that education should guarantee students the same "possibility of developing the life project". In this sense, they propose that Euskera be "the fundamental pillar to achieve the affinity of students and social cohesion".

Two years ago, teachers, experts, social partners and institutions met to discuss the issue. Subsequently, in 2022, two participatory forums were held in which the report they have just presented is drawn up. The sociopolitical coordinator of Eusko Ikaskuntza-Sociedad de Estudios Vascos, Beatriz Akizu, and the researcher of the UPV/EHU, Idoia Fernández, have presented a series of challenges that they have highlighted.

Firstly, they stress the need to involve the whole of society: authorities, municipalities, non-regulated education agents, etc. They also propose a shared governance model between the actors involved in the conflict and a "shared political leadership" in decision-making. They stress that decision-makers must be "brave". Moreover, they have emphasized that thinking "how to imagine a future Basque student" is a challenge considering "interculturality". As far as training is concerned, the report says that teacher requirements must be redefined.

The Education Advisor, Jokin Bildarratz, has intervened on the day. He says that society has changed a lot in recent years and that education has to adapt to that. He says that "they have taken measures to transform the current schooling model and avoid concentrations of vulnerable students".

Procession in Vitoria against the new Law of Education

On the same day the Support to the Basque Public School in Vitoria-Gasteiz presented the report, a performance against the new Education Act. He denounces that with the law the centers of the Catholic Church will receive more public money.

In the procession they stressed that, through the Basque Public Educational Service that the new Education Act aims to organise, private concerted centres will receive the same financial support as the public if certain requirements are met. Among these conditions is secularism, but the platform says that "they will never fulfill it because it goes against its character".

The procession has passed through the seats of the parties that signed the Educational Agreement to "thank" the parties that with the new Education Act "everything remains the same": "dual public-private system, school segregation and indoctrination". They call on PNV, PSE, EHBildu and Elkarrekin to "dare" against the law and to be at the centre of "Public Education for All".