Automatically translated from Basque, translation may contain errors. More information here. Elhuyarren itzultzaile automatikoaren logoa

Education and policy


19 September 2023 - 07:06
Last updated: 09:21

The educational systems and the laws that regulate them are accompanied by the political development of the states. Therefore, their analysis will reveal the nature of the former and vice versa. If this is true, it can be concluded that governments only change aspects when legislating on education, leaving the important equally. And that's education in general, and it's education in schools in particular, because they're designed to perpetuate the political system.

Therefore, it is very important to distinguish between what the educational laws have as their objective and the practical measures they take in reality. For example, to point out in a law that seeks social justice, while in practical reality private centers are authorized, guaranteed and supported with public money, besides being contradictory is fraud.

The relationship between the interests of the powerful and the educational system should be evident to the left, but, unfortunately, the parties that want to change reality, the unions, the pedagogical movements, the teachers…, have largely forgotten it.

Of course, the current social reality is different from the 1960s, when the pedagogy of the oppressed by Paolo Freire was published, but, as my professor Iñaki Otxoa de Olza said, in the Spanish state it is customary not to read the theories. Freire's message that in order for social, autonomous and conscious change to take place, it is necessary to have another kind of education that the power desires, is correct and current. And that present situation will not be lost as social inequalities and injustices persist. This means that students should not try to adapt to the programming that institutions have prepared for inclusion, but rather teach them new ways from their situation to make the unjust reality a more just reality.

Those who work in teaching to carry out this message must be aware that their activity is political and not merely administrative.

The relationship between the interests of the powerful and the education system should be obvious to the left, but unfortunately they have forgotten it.

In the 1970s, when Franco's Franco was in force (the other Franco without tyrant largely follows) and in the next, for many professors of the time working in education was participating in politics. Many of us who worked in teaching militated and tried to convince the leftist parties, but we did not listen to those who said that education should be out of politics, that they were supporters of the hierarchization of society, who argued that only the old (the “experts” of today) had to deal with politics, knowing that then those who were in political power would be those, not on merits, but heirs.

And the reason we got into education policy was that we wanted to change an unjust society, and that in order to correct the injustices that were there, the students had to become aware of those injustices through us. Therefore, for many of us it was impossible to separate classroom work from the fight for justice. And we did not do it by indoctrination, but by the discovery of other realities that were not official, so that the students had the opportunity to channel their lives. For this reason, we sought and proposed alternatives to official content collected by Francoist textbooks and professors. Examples were: ADARRA, an autonomous pedagogical movement that helped us to improve our teaching, functioning through assemblies, through which we elaborated a scale of access to teaching, eliminating the competence of the directors of the center to choose the faculty; the wave of teachers to register at AEK was created, not with the objective of accessing the jobs, but by the awareness of recovering the language that was about to be lost assemblies, and the impulse of parents to participate. All this with a practical political objective: to change the system of creating injustices.

Today, capitalism has absorbed and eliminated all these alternative attempts through institutionalization and theft of concepts. Thus, the movement for pedagogical innovation became Formation and pedagogical innovation, for which Berritzegunes were created, which not to help the teachers, but to flee the chalk; the learning of the Basque language was also made official, and from there was more importance to the formation through their exams; the school councils were regulated so that the participation of the students would become a law of arbitration. And if this were not enough, we must add to the educational degeneration “quality systems” badly called, because those programs that were created to improve production and sales have been integrated into teaching through false experts and profit companies, turning students and their parents into “customers”, and thanks to an endless bureaucracy they have managed to control learning, as a product of productive chain.

To improve the education provided in the centers, the proposals among others would be: that the students be reputed to copy the model of those who provoke the injustices; that they do not stop doing it in the hands of those who are not in the classroom; that they share the experience outside the institutions that control power; that they overcome the bureaucracy imposed to give 100% to the programming and their development; that these programs stop

Julen Goñi, professor of philosophy

Bidali zure iritzi artikuluak iritzia@argia.eus helbide elektronikora

ARGIAk ez du zertan bat etorri artikuluen edukiarekin. Idatzien gehienezko luzera 4.500 karakterekoa da (espazioak barne). Idazkera aldetik gutxieneko zuzentasun bat beharrezkoa da: batetik, ARGIAk ezin du hartu zuzenketa sakona egiteko lanik; bestetik, egitekotan edukia nahi gabe aldatzeko arriskua dago. ARGIAk azaleko zuzenketak edo moldaketak egingo dizkie artikuluei, behar izanez gero.


You are interested in the channel: Irakurleen gutunak
2025-01-27 | Aritz Arrieta
The Basque host country?

To be honest, I don't know why I'm writing this. In today’s hostile environment, opinions of this kind are not well received. Perhaps LUZ will not publish this because it does not correspond to the opinions they have published so far (but if they have finally decided to publish... [+]


Don’t let the sound of money silence the buzz of bombs

On January 15, the techno-business lobby called Cedarios presented its 6th report, Euskadi and the European Union, the shared destiny of prosperity and competitiveness. This neoliberal Think Tank, made up of eminent experts drawn from the world of finance, presented a magical... [+]


The Basque Country Welcome Village

We Basques move our feet behind the witness of Korrika to proclaim that we want to survive as a Basque people in favor of our language, with the aim of the Basque Country we desire.

The tipi-tapa is the first step taken by a migrant person who leaves his homeland in Africa,... [+]


Strikes of glutamate

And for another year, the unions have organized prefabricated strikes for us. And we, individually, will decide whether or not to join the strike, without the need for any assembly at the school.

The strike model that I was taught is no longer in vogue, it seems. In my... [+]


50 years of potash strike

Today, January 21, is a day to remember and reflect on an interesting ephemeris of our recent history. It is 50 years since the lockdown of 47 workers from Potase in Navarre. This lockdown, which lasted fifteen days, caused a general strike in Navarre, the Department of the... [+]


Conversion of the military industry, ethical necessity

A couple of weeks ago, a number of data from Norway was published. In this country of Northern Europe electric cars have predominated, being the Tesla brand the most sold, with 90% of recyclable energy consumed there. On the contrary, Norwegian public enterprises have no problem... [+]


2025-01-19 | Urtzi Ugalde
Goodbye, mom

These were my last words when we left, held hand in your deep breathing sleep. Your heart stayed forever without a special, simple, dignified pain. As you want and demand. How we want and respect.

Already a month before the arrival of winter, the last days of the longest night,... [+]


2025-01-17 | Oihane Artetxe
Vulnerable children: institutional violence in our context

Today, the voices of women and children remain within a culture that delegitimizes their voices, silencing their experiences, within a system aimed at minimizing or ignoring their basic rights and needs. A media example of this problem is the case of Juana Rivas, but her story... [+]


No to the ban on political militancy!

On Tuesday, the sentence was released against five young people from Lapurdi, convicted of belonging to Segi. Fifteen months in prison for reversal to two young people, with a fine of EUR 500 each; 140 hours of forced labour and EUR 500 fine to two other young people; and,... [+]


“More with less”

The other day, as I was walking through the famous television series The Wire, there came a scene that reminded me of despair. There, the management of the newspaper The Baltimore Sun brought together the workers and alerted them to the changes that are coming, i.e. redundancies... [+]


Smartphone: our fetish king

The consumerist culture we live in sends every user to an unreasonable enjoyment. As Slavoj Zize says, Enjoy your fetish, it has become the rude mandate of hypermodernity. Current enjoyment is carried out through existing technological devices to occupy the place of fetish. But... [+]


Marxter Chef

A ghost crosses the kitchens: The ghosts of Carlos.

Karlos has not been presented to the Master Chef Celebrity. After analyzing its culinary heritage, it is very clear that it will not overcome the selection of its opponents. In fact, the Academy of Gastronomy and the media... [+]


2025-01-13 | Gerardo Luzuriaga
Selection of the Basque Country?

The achievement of the Euskadi Selection has undoubtedly been a historic achievement. But if you stick to that, for many Basques – I too, because I am Navarro – it will be the darkest and saddest day. After enjoying the joy and warmth of the first few days, let's go back to... [+]


Worrying current situation and consequences of Hearing and Language Teachers

Hearing and language teachers (PDI) and speech therapists are specialist teachers who work in both the public and the concerted school. Among its functions is the direct attention to students with language and communication difficulties, but also the establishment of incremental... [+]


All victims of the IAP

The victims created by the IAP are not only functionalized teachers thanks to the stabilization process brought about by the IAP Law, but much more. Some have been given some media visibility as a result of Steilas's appeal, but most of them are invisible. All the victims of the... [+]


Eguneraketa berriak daude