First of all, let's look at the school.

We offer models A, G and D. This is the first course of model D, in which the Ikastola participates. The PAI model was imposed six years ago and we taught it in Primary School. We have about 520 students.

How do you bring online education in this lockdown situation?

The management team must meet at the centre, as far as we are concerned, it is quite good. The teachers are giving everything they can and more, working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. From their personal phones they are paying attention to the students and their families, doing everything in their hands. Many of our students do not have the means to receive education electronically, and although it has cost us a great deal, we have managed to bring the duties to everyone.

What did it mean for you to have to start the PAI model 6 years ago?

The biggest change was for the youngest, with twelve sessions in English (another twelve in Spanish). Some teachers, by chance, were displaced. Care for children was also affected, as a tutor who did not become a tutor had to offer twelve sessions in one and twelve sessions in the other, with children of 3 years. In addition, another aspect of this center should be taken into account, as it can be said that half of the children of that age do not often understand Spanish, since their mother tongue is Arabic.

How do you assess the evolution of the IAP over the past 5 years?

With the smaller ones it is evident that there are contents that cannot be worked in the same way, we had to lower the level of many contents, we could not reach the level we arrived before. In Primary we also had to reorganize everything: in the odd courses, Natural Sciences were taught in English and in the even-handed courses Social Sciences. But last year we decided that we couldn't go on like this and we started giving a Nature Sciences session in Spanish and in the others we tried to strengthen English. But, of course, one of the consequences is that many of the contents of this subject are lost, so the level of education was reduced.

We also decided to give two contents in English, one in English and the other in Spanish, although the harm that this entails is to sacrifice some content; it is also intended to improve the level of English a little, although we do not know how much can be improved.

The PAI model has not come to the conclusion that it does not serve you and you have decided to leave it for the year 2021. How has the internal process been in making that decision?

Since we were forced to implement this program, both the cloister and the APYMA and the school board were against the implementation of the IAP. During the past year, the fathers and mothers of some EP children also complained about the PAI program, at which point the greatest difficulties emerge. We were also asked that the 3-year-olds should not enter the program. We were asked to present an invitation to leave the PAI model, but the last course did not give us time to enter it. So we said we would do it this year.

However, the Department of Education has shown itself to be against its position and has categorically denied its existence. Is the college not autonomous to make these decisions?

We are autonomous in choosing educational models, but it is a PAI programme set up by the government, so it is not true that families choose freely. We are not autonomous here. We have made a clear request and have been denied it.

To justify the refusal, the Department of Education points out that no reference is made to what the staff will be after leaving the program and that Order Foral 147/2016 has not been taken into account, which states that the center must ensure the monitoring of the program in the already established courses.

The Cloister, the School Council and parents have informed me that they will appeal to this resolution. I have been told that the resolution is wrong in the forms. On the other hand, I can assure you that what they say about the staff is not the case, because I wrote it myself (see point 3). According to the Cloister the Foral Order is complied with. It states that the IAP must be taught until the course in which it is established, and in the case of Castejón this level is 2 of EP. The Department of Education asks us to complete the “stage”, but in the Foral Order the concept of “stage” does not appear at all, but the word “course”. It's logical because if you see that on EP 1 something doesn't work well, you won't force another 5 courses to go on like this.

You mentioned your parents. How have they positioned themselves in general?

APYMA abstained in the first vote, considering that it represented the parents who had spoken against the decision. I think most parents are seeing that the IAP does not work in this center. We did a general meeting to explain the decision made; we predicted that the meeting was going to be worse, but people understood the arguments.

With the IAP, they were making promises that we don’t know very well, and families don’t see a clear goal… More and more families are aware of the situation.

Navarra Suma and PSN led to the Corporation the decision they have made with the PAI. Why?

The school has its scope of decision, the school board. We do not understand why a decision taken at the school is discussed in a city council requesting the repeal of that school council. We do not discuss municipal budgets in the school board, asking for them to be approved or not. We don't understand this behavior.

Looking ahead, what do you think would be the best pedagogical model for the school?

Without PAI and delving into other educational models. The PAI program may work in a school in Pamplona, Tudela, Corella or Cintrueñigo, but in Castejón no. 45% of students have as their mother tongue the Arabic language, and Spanish they know is the language they learn in school. In addition, for most students, English is limited to the four walls of the school. Many of the students are immigrants, among them those who have arrived with a significant age, without knowing the language and with a significant curricular delay.

Because the Department of Education doesn't tell us that the resources these children need are made in Spanish; and if I have to take out half a class to teach science in Spanish while the other half receives it in English, something is not going well.

He has already commented that it is the first year in which model D has been implemented, so students of the Basque line receive the PAI-D model. What does it consist of?

They do everything in Basque and six sessions in English.

How do you rate the first steps of this model in Castejón?

With the course that has touched us it is difficult to make an assessment… I don’t know, the fear I have is that here in Castejón, the Euskera is nowhere outside school, there is no talk. Most parents of children in model D also (except two or three families). I hope it will work. What I know is that nothing is said here in Basque, and that they do not have the means to integrate into the language outside. However, model D can be freely chosen, families have this right, but with the PAI model the same is not the case.