On the one hand, the LOMCE of the Spanish Government, and on the other, the Heziberri Plan of the Basque Government. How have you started the course?

Uncertainty is the main feature of this year, at least at the beginning of the course. The LOMCE is in force and must be implemented, but it is clear that there is a chance that the law will be suspended or that its most pessimistic elements will not at least be applied, and the Spanish elections are also immediate. We have to turn that uncertainty into an opportunity for education and public actors to jointly build their own educational system and turn all that work into law, into parliaments that we can.

But are you applying LOMCE?

The two main pillars of the LOMCE are, on the one hand, the curriculum that they themselves have established, and in this area we work the Basque curriculum through Eki’s teaching materials. In addition, there are evaluation tests; last year the administration proposed the pilot test at two ikastolas and in two of them refused to examine it. We think it is good to make an assessment diagnosis in half of Primary Education, but we do not agree at all with the LOMCE approach, because the objectives that a diagnostic evaluation should have for us are different from those of LOMCE. Therefore, some aspects of the law will be mandatory, but in the curricular sphere, in the classrooms and in our day to day the wager of the ikastolas is and will remain the Basque curriculum.

You mentioned the elections in Spain. The result will be key for the LOMCE assessment or revalidation to be suspended once and for all.

Yes and it seems that it can happen, that's our hope, but I can't know, I don't have a magic ball to predict the future. In any case, we will follow our path, working as before, whether the LOMCE is or not, because this law is too conditioning the agenda of the educational agents of our country.

The elections have just changed the Government of Navarre, as well as the situation of many Navarros and Navarre municipalities. How will this affect local ikastolas?

We are very hopeful of the new government, of the previous change of attitude is brutal and we believe that some changes will inevitably occur, and we hope that it will be in the short term. For example, that the material we have through IkasElkar is not prohibited in the educational centers of Navarra, that it does not follow the program of gratuity, because we know what arguments the previous government used for it, about the approach of Euskal Herria that was made in those textbooks. At the same time, we believe that zoning must be broken, the Basque country must be official in all the territories of Navarre and the opportunity must be given to study in Basque. We hope that the ikastolas in the current non-vascophony area will receive the help and recognition they need. In places where there is no public model D, the dissemination of teaching in Basque should be made in a balanced and planned manner among all peoples and educational agents.

The Navarre Education Advisor, José Luis Mendoza, has said that he will give the option to publish the ikastolas of the non-vascophony zone.

Our approach is not that, far from it. We believe in our model, we believe that there are different educational options and that ours is the right one. The work carried out in Navarra has been a popular work and this model remains very important for the development of Basque education.

In Ipar Euskal Herria, on the contrary, there is nothing new. The Ikastola Kaskarotenea de Ziburu (Bizkaia) has started the course at least in a new building. Will citizen pressure help improve the situation of SEASKA?

Solidarity and involvement of all the agents of Euskal Herria are necessary. It is an incredible bet that has been made in Iparralde and is paying off, for example, if we look at the results of Baxoa. If we want to normalize education in Basque, it is essential that SEASKA be strong and for this we need the help of all. We have made a special appeal to the institutions to get much more involved in this issue, because we often hear each other expressing our appreciation and solidarity to the representatives of the public institutions, but in recent years real aid has been very little, far from the needs we have. We citizens know that they are going to respond, the ikastolas will also do so through the solidarity fund, but we also need the third leg to carry out the project.

And in the Basque Autonomous Community, one of the main challenges will be the Basque School Law, which will be elaborated by the Basque Government to incorporate into the law not only the public network, but also the concerted network.

It is an inescapable law, because the only law we have at the moment, the Basque Public School Act of 1993, only regulates half of the educational system, the public network, and a law is needed that regulates the entire system, such as in health, trade, etc. When a law is made, the medium- and long-term objectives are put on the table, the agents have the opportunity to discuss them, and I think that is a very timely moment to do so. We know what the main debates are: to promote multilingualism centered on the Basque language; the Basque curriculum; the function of teachers, the conditions of training and work; to improve the performance of students; and the definition of the public education service. The latter will be the most open debate.

Precisely, the public school says that only they are public and that they should have priority. You, on the other hand, must redefine the concept of advertising.

We understand the advertising linked to the service, the service that is provided to the people. Linking advertising to ownership seems to us to be a Jacobin and reactionary model, which comes from France and Spain, and we have to work on our model. It is clear to us that this public service would be controlled by the administration, but within it the agents should have the possibility of different forms of management.

The public school says that if a law is made for all, the rules of the game for the public and concerted network should be brought into line with each other, and that children with special needs (because they are newly arrived in the Basque Country, because they have some disability…) should be welcomed in a more balanced way, as most are concentrated in the public network.

We agree on this. One of the basic pillars of public service should be transparency and explaining where and how all public funds are used. And as far as the reception of students is concerned, there is still a need for an in-depth debate to know what the approach is in this regard. Today we see that it is done in a very unbalanced way, both in the concerted network and in the public network and according to the country. The administration has to define planning, but if that is the people’s bet, we cannot stop in and we will make the decisions we have to make. From the linguistic point of view, moreover, it is an important bet.

You mentioned earlier the textbooks Eki, the essence of your pedagogical project. What are Eki's bases?

It is a new and innovative didactic material for the students to acquire the skills necessary for life. The acronym Eki includes the main features: Based on Basque curricular development, focused on Competencies and supported on the pedagogy of Integration (learning to mobilize resources to solve a situation problem and be able to use it in life). In recent years this has been our great challenge, to design the Basque curriculum and to turn it into a textbook. This year we will make a major leap: Eki will be developed in digital support at 38-39 ikastolas. It is a challenge for the years and we will continue with that option.

We have abandoned the catering system of school canteens and we have met some canteens managed by the center itself, with the aim of offering the students products of the environment and of the time. Does the Federation of Ikastolas have a line of work on this?

In principle, each ikastola has the freedom to choose the model he chooses and it is true that in several ikastolas they have very interesting projects based on food sovereignty, working with small producers, making products of the day, cooking in them... These choices require work and responsibility, because it is not always easy to manage this type of project, but within the comprehensive education of children we believe it is essential to take this matter into account, and that it is much healthier and richer. In the ikastola in which I am lehendakari, for example, in the Ikastola Betiko of Leioa, we have opted for that model, although it is not easy to feed 700 people every day.

Recently we have released a report in Argia on four ikastolas who are working on the educational evaluation, leaving aside the usual notes and jointly evaluating and self-evaluating students and professors. Would you like to move towards a new form of evaluation?

The pilot project carried out in these four ikastolas is yielding very good results. Diagnostic evaluations serve us to implement these types of projects, performing an X-ray of the ikastola and detecting the weaknesses and strengths it may have. We intend to continue with the plan and extend it to other ikastolas, because we are very happy with what we have seen.

The Kilometroak festival will be held this year in Usurbil and will be based on three pillars: egalitarian, inclusive and plural.

Above all, the process, which has been carried out with local actors and with the entities operating in these areas, is highlighted. After all, that is the essence of the ikastola, that of joining with the people. They have written a decalogue related to integration and mobility, for example, collaborating, adapting the route… It wants to be a reference for the next editions.

What relationship do you want to have with the administration and the public network?

Well. We are always ready to cooperate, with the administrations and with all the educational players, let us not say at the moment, because we are faced with some of the main bets. As far as the law is concerned, we have already mentioned earlier that we have issues to discuss, and that is what we need to do as soon as possible. We cannot have each of you, for example, put what we think of as public in the media or whatever, without looking for forums and meeting points for a deep debate. In addition, we agree on many points and in others we have differences, but we will have to share the views and the red lines of all if we want to build our own educational system.

Is a system of its own for the whole of the Basque Country therefore possible? What's the way?

At the moment, we are in part in it, through the Basque curriculum, through a multilingual approach centered on the Basque… In the classroom we are in that day to day, but it is true that what we need now is to achieve a legal framework that recognizes and supports all this. We believe that the two governments in Hego Euskal Herria can converge in that, in Iparralde it is more difficult… And what our students receive in daily life is not far from what they would receive in a free Basque Country.