Seaska was founded in 1969. After being illegal for 25 years, in 1994 the French Government legalized schools dedicated to local languages such as Seaska, Diwan (in Breton), Bressola (in Catalan) and Calandreta (in Occitan). The fact that the Minister of Education was impressed by minority languages served to create this law, since Minister François Bayrou was an Occitan and it was thanks to him that the schools obtained legal protection. The schools took the category of private schools. It was a big step, but it was even bigger in June 2009. The Public Body of the Basque Language and the French Ministry of Education signed an agreement to define the tasks of three years. It is, however, a preamble to that agreement, vital to Seaska. For the first time in the legal field, the distinction of the ikastolas was collected. In 1994, the Seaskan schools appeared as private schools, that is, as any other ordinary private school. In 2009, the word ‘immersion’ appears, meaning that the agreement states that schools are schools that teach in model D. For the first time, Seaskari was recognized as a Basque language school.

Lawyer to receive subsidies from local households

On the other hand, Seaska is well aware of the progress made in 2009, where there are multiple ways of interpreting laws and where the Government and Seaska often disagree. Adhering to this context, we will mention two key issues for Seaska’s struggle: the functioning of schools and investments. They both have as many maratiles as the doors, to see if we can untie the knots.

Let's get to work first. The President of Seaska, Paxkal Indo, first of all made one thing clear to us: That it is okay to legalize Seaska, but that it is debatable to put it under the characteristics of private school, because Seaska has an audience to do: save the Basque language.

To explain the tricks of the operation, it is necessary to take into account who manages the schools. The village houses are responsible for children up to the age of 12, the colleges (12-16) are subordinate to the General Council and the lyceums (16-18) are in the hands of Aquitaine. Seaska has recently begun to pursue local households because they believe they do not receive the subsidies they are entitled to. Let’s explain it better with an example: In Baigorri (Lower Navarre) there is a public school, a Christian or Gypsy school and a ikastola. Each Bajoran child can decide where he/she wants to study and then the village house will put several dollars per child to cover the expenses of this school during the year. Let’s assume that parents want the child to learn Basque in the D model, and that since public and Christian schools do not guarantee this, they have taken him to school. The child has reached the age of 6 years and cannot continue in the Baigor school because there is no level above that age. The parents took the child to school.

Seaska believes that all children should be treated equally, so study in one school or another, the village house should provide the same amount per child. The fact is that, in this example, the Baigorrian child has been taken to Ortziz by his parents and the village house will not grant the corresponding subsidy to that child. In addition, he would tell his parents that they were not obliged to remove the child from the village, which had a place in the public school. The school in Ortzaíz is attended by children from eleven nearby towns. There are about a hundred children and twenty of them are local. In Saint-Jean-de-Garazi there are eleven to fifteen villages, in Maule there are students from twenty villages. The money that should be there for these students isn't going anywhere. Indo sees two problems there: on the one hand, schools are significantly lost because they lose money for children who cannot attend school in the village due to lack of infrastructure, and on the other hand, the concept of equality is not fulfilled by the French Government; schools in Ortzaiz, Saint-Jean-de-Garazi and Maule, for example, have considerably less resources than others because they do not receive subsidies for children who do not belong to the village. The amount of money left unpaid by the village houses is equal to the amount received in two or three Popular Steps. In view of the enormous loss of money, they have made a firm decision: “From here we will be very strict, Seaska will work for the first time in the legal field, we have started working with the lawyer. We have been very pedagogical for two to three years and this year we have decided to go to another level, our lawyers will be pedagogic.” Not all houses in the village look the other way. In the BAB, for example, Biarritz, Anglet and Bayonne have an agreement that allows the houses of the three localities to pay subsidies to all local children, regardless of where they are studying.

The prefect says no money for bricks

We have already mentioned one of the great challenges of Seaska, how to withhold annual grants. The second challenge is related to bricks, more formally, investments. According to the Private Schools Act, local houses, the General Council and Aquitaine cannot provide private schools with money for investments, new buildings, or very little. Seaska is fully captured by this order of the law just because new buildings are constantly being built. The number of students is increasing year by year, for example, this year they have had to accommodate between 180 and 200 more children. Five years ago, the new school in Cambo (Lapurdi) was opened for 120 students, thinking that it would be enough, so this year they had to increase it to accommodate 150 children. The increase in the number of students is exponential. In the coming years, they want to build a high school that will cost twelve million euros, the renovation of the Xalbador School will require five to six million euros and, as always, several new schools will be built. However, the law clearly states that private schools cannot be given money to build buildings. Paxkal Indo has said: “The government says that no more laws are needed to promote local languages, that what the constitution contains is enough, that instead of helping as a private school through the implementation of the constitution, they pay for the schools in the name of heritage, because we are working for the language. I’d bet on that, but I know it won’t happen.”

The government does not finance new buildings and Seaska raises the walls like mushrooms. How have they managed so far? Basically, thanks to the Basque Government and with the money of Pasos Popular. In ten years they have needed fifteen million euros for new buildings and they have arrived exactly. Seaska will need 15-18 million euros over the next five years. The last People’s Step has not been good and if the Government has contributed just over one million euros annually over the last decade, it will contribute 450,000 euros per year over the next three years. In any case, Seaska is clear that it is the French Government that has the obligations, since it is the French Government that pays the taxes. Indo makes the following reflection: “We have 2,700 students, if we close tomorrow, where will these children be housed? They'll have to make residences. They should intercept a fortune from one day to the next, which they do not intercept today. Some people don’t want to work for us, they don’t want to work for us. We have to get out of this crazy debate and take it to the laws: we obey the laws, you are the ones who don’t.” The

day we interviewed him, he was going to go to Paxkal Indo Izpura (Lower Navarre) to talk to the local neighbour. They would refer to the letter sent in September by the Prefect of the Atlantic Pyrenees, Philippe Rey. The prefect shakes the corners in the houses of the people. The previous prefect did the same, but the current prefect has done it twice. The fact is that he has sent a letter to all the houses of the town, reminding them that the houses of the town cannot subsidize private schools for the construction of buildings. The Prefect has in some way put the following message in capital letters: “Be careful, you don’t have to do that,” he says, leaving in fine print what can be done if several conditions are met, as the houses of the town have a way to help the private schools to raise the buildings. Despite the threats from the prefects, several local houses have so far managed to subsidize Seaska, but Philippe Rey is doing his job well. Indo tells us that “the prefect will continue to act as a police officer and we will explain to the neighbors with many pedagogies the capital and small letters of the prefect’s letter”.

A huge campaign in the head

It’s not safe, but Seaska is thinking about the idea of a broad campaign. Given the decline in subsidies from the Basque Government and the shaking that the prefect is giving, the idea would be for the needs of the schools to be taken over by the people. Paxkal Indo insists on the need to work both ways with the same force: on the one hand, to press on the public power and, on the other, to take advantage of the strength of the popular movement, which has no doubt that Seaska should continue as a popular movement.