IRALE workers and Centers for Idiomatic Entrenchment see "the Basque Service in a critical situation"
- In a joint note, they have explained the latest resolutions adopted by the Department of Education of the Basque Government, which have been referred to Lehendakaritza. IRALE will be 40 years old in the Euskaldunisation of teachers and about 700 teachers receive training. However, they have pointed out that, as a result of the decisions of the Department of Education, 28 out of 84 workers "will be expelled from the service and to this must be added the lot of planned retirements". On the other hand, the Centers for Idiomatic Hobbies have been offering students living in the most Castilian speaking areas for 35 years the possibility of living for four days in Basque. On the occasion of COVID-19, the Department of Education has made several proposals to maintain the program during the next course, but they have not received a response and they see the same program in question.
IRALE workers have denounced that "the Department has deprived all of them of their right to training in the next year." The Department of Education has agreed a new task to IRALE for the next school year: Implement interventions in more than 50 centres of the Hamaika Esku programme (centres that bring together a high percentage of students with more difficulties) in the areas of reading, orality and suitability of materials. - Great challenge! The teachers of Irale have been prepared to respond to this and to make our experience available to those in a more vulnerable situation. So when we were told on June 18 that the templates were going to be kept, we received the news enthusiastically." However, the forecasts for this group worsened on 30 June, when the following courses were already being organized: "We stated that the resolution was produced on 30 June, as no one informed us of what the resolution contained. Through the web we learn that from now on the IRALE interim faculty will not be able to continue in the service. As a result, all educational establishments will be diminished and some will be severely affected. Of the 84 workers, 28 will be expelled from the service, to which must be added the number of expected retirements".
"The situation of the Centers for Idiomatic Hobbies is even more serious. They will suspend the barnetegis program"
Barnetegi workers have acknowledged that "this COVID-19 situation has unexpectedly caught us all and we have had to adapt to the situation." As indicated, they have drawn up a concrete proposal to develop the programme in compliance with the health requirements: "So that educational centers and students do not run out of the barnetegis program, we have worked with the boarding school teachers team, we have worked on how to continue with the program, and we have seen that the most feasible and guaranteed solution is that the shift is done in the educational centers and in our opinion it can bring very good results." Other proposals have also been submitted to the Department of Education: "That students spend their day in the barnetegis, follow up throughout the year, strengthen the connection between schools and boarding schools through the use of new technologies..." But their proposals "have not been answered." Workers see the programme in jeopardy.
"We call on the Department of Education to reverse its latest decisions"
The workers of IRALE and the Centers for Idiomatic Entrenchment have stated that "it is now more than ever necessary to strengthen the reinforcement programs of the Basque Country and to support those who have difficulty expressing themselves in Euskera, which are often the only model of the Basque Country". As a result of the confinement, many students have remembered that between March and September they will not have "any possibility" to use the Basque language, and that many professors will also use the Basque language "much less" in these months. And "it's known that if you don't use a language, you lose." For all these reasons, they ask the Department of Education to "reverse the latest decisions made, and we say loud and clear that if the school has to euskaldunizar it is essential that the Basque Service be strong".
Euskal Girotze Barnetegiak, 35 years of support for the Basque Country
The workers of these barnetegis see themselves as "a support service to the educational centers of the CAV" and aim to offer students living in the most Castilian speaking areas the possibility of living in Euskera for four days, "but also to work awareness, attitudes, convictions, adherence to Euskera..." "The EGB program has a very good reception and appreciation and leaves in students sensations that they will never forget."
IRALE, 40 years of Euskaldunisation and teacher training
IRALE is the Faculty Literacy and Euskaldunization Program, and currently receives training about 700 teachers a year. As explained in the note, "its function in the creation was to Euskaldunizar the teaching staff, that is, to help a large group of CAV professors to move from being a monolingual Castilian speaking to bilingü e.En for the last two decades, the work of IRALE has focused on complementing and enriching the linguistic competence of the Basque professors, to improve the level of Basque
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