The treasure is so great / That it does not enter the boat / that is why we are / entering us spreading / You have to help us achieve this beautiful objective / both in the ikastola and on the street / always speaking in Basque. This is how Orlando Arreitunandia sings in one of the verses of this year’s festival song, and the director of Bastida Ikastola, Ketxu Bedialauneta, explains its meaning: “We’re talking about Euskera, of course. First, we Basques have to internalize the Basque. The song of the feast talks about the treasury, the Basque is that treasure, we have wealth, we have to be aware of it. Then, it’s up to us to disperse, spread it here and there.” It is not the first time the festival of the Alavese ikastolas is held in the Labastida village. It premiered in 1989 and since then it did so in 2004
and 2008.En dissemination works for years

Work is already underway in Bastida Ikastola to spread the Basque Country. It was founded in 1979 with nine students, and currently has 174 students, among whom is a classroom of 1st and 2nd ESO from Early Childhood Education. The ikastola started its journey in model B, as was usual in the Castilian speaking area. “But the teachers at the time wanted a better level of Euskera for the students and started a reinforced model B, followed by a model in Euskera in 1996-1997. If you wanted to get the children to live in Euskera, you had to change the activity of ikastola and talk only in Euskera.” Since the only Basque model and scope of these children was the ikastola, it was more appropriate to start model D in the center. The model sets an example, knowledge and use occur suddenly in Labastida, as in the rest of the Basque peoples: “Students now have a better level. We always talk about formal use, they well assimilate the lessons that are worked in class, but when it comes to Basque outside class, they have no references, they have no models. It is more difficult when a non-formal use is made. I, for example, am from Ondarroa, and every day I see the difference.”

Live use

With model B still in force in the ikastola, the team of professors of the ikastola joined the idea of influencing the use of the Euskera, the Euskaraz Bizi project. In the opinion of Bedialauneta, “the project works well between the 1st and 2nd of Primary. The older the students, the harder it is to connect with the Argitxo character of the project and his stories, and then we have to invent other paths, either the carnival campaign or using the new technologies. That’s where we get better results.”

Results are also being obtained from another branch, but not in the ikastola, but in the village: “Former students are the best helpers. We have four alumni and their children. I think that is where the future of the Basque Country comes from in Labastida, from the students of the ikastola. At home there are also people who speak Basque.” Natural transmission is at stake in Labastida. Unthinkable, a few years ago in the village. “You just have to go to the bar to listen in Basque. There you will find alumni, without too many difficulties to speak in Basque. On holidays, weekends and summer, many Euskaldunes congregate in the town. It goes from 1,200 inhabitants to 7,000 people.” And, of course, many of them are Basque.

2006-2007, new ikastola

The Ikastola de Labastida received a new building six years ago that housed new facilities of the ikastola. The decision, to life and death, according to director Bedialauneta, since the students were tight in the old building, had in their hands the registration data and had to burst. They will also do so to deal with the great economic investment they did then, and among other things, the money they will raise at the June main party. One of the purposes is to pay off debts, but not the only one. “We also need resources to carry out the project. On the other hand, we would like to reinforce the movement of the ikastola in the village and in the environment, to disseminate the project, to strengthen it”. In Labastida there is also a need, and they want to work the attachment to the ikastola and the Basque among the relatives… In fact, unlike the schools of the big capitals, cities and towns, in the schools of the small towns children gather together from different places. In Labastida, for example.

Today, in addition to those of Labastida, the Riojanos Haro and Casalarreina and the Burgese Miranda de Ebro, all of them in Basque, are at the ikastola. “We are speaking in Basque, we teach subjects in Basque, except Spanish and English, of course. We would like the Basque and the Spanish to be on the same level, not to impose each other. In addition to the work we do within the classroom, we also try outside the classroom, through ball school and multi-sport.” In extracurricular activities the monitor and responsible is the professor of Physical Education. “That helps a lot, you don’t have to work the Basque sensibility with him, and the students also know that they are going to speak in Euskera.”

In the light of the data, 14% of parents are Euskaldunes, and there is also a lot to do in that regard. It's the concern of many parents. “We have heard many times: ‘I can’t help my son because I don’t know Basque’. But that same father doesn't even know English, and that's not a problem, he doesn't think it's an impediment. In the case of Euskera, yes. That concern cannot be removed from the head of many fathers and mothers. In addition, if we reach a certain level, neither in Basque, Spanish, nor in English, children know more than their parents and therefore cannot help them voluntarily. Our goal is for the child to worry about the issues they have to learn, and then explain them to the parents. We strive for it.”