On May 9th and 10th, some 280 Secondary Education students from all over the Basque Country (between 14 and 16 years old) met in Fontellas, together with Tudela. There is the ikastola Argia and they aimed at the March of the Bardenas. In some editions up to 400 pupils have been gathered.

Fifteen years ago, due to the need to boost Euskera in the south of Navarra, several professors of Physical Education of the ikastolas thought of the Bardenas. “Do we have a more beautiful field than this one?” says Iraitz Rodríguez, professor of Soinketa in Argia. It is Donostiarra and although it has only been two years in this ikastola, it is “very used” to organizing the Cycling March. “When we came to some new member, we all immediately entered the organizational dynamic and taught him in complete simplicity, as they did with me.”

After the meal, the students arrive by bus at Paseo de los Keiles and there are fifteen professors who take care of them. They are divided into groups and given t-shirts of a different color. Next, there are games to get to know each other, the reception of the mayor in the City Hall and a ginkana by Tudela.

With a raccoon in her
hand, Ginkana is an opportunity to get to know the city, strengthen ties with the locals and, by the way, work the orientation. After the game, this year all the students “sat in a circle and started to talk,” the professor said. Once overcome the “nervousness of welcoming young people from outside to their home”, they head to the ikastola for dinner and a party. “This year, some students with a punk group were encouraged to give a concert on the fronton,” adds Rodríguez.

In her words, it is beneficial for teens between 14 and 16 years of age to enjoy a non-alcoholic party, as at this age they have already started to drink beers at the venue and the party identifies with alcohol.

The next morning, they eat breakfast and go to buses to the Bardenas. Starting from the Monument to the Shepherd, the Castles of the Royal Bardenas reach their famous summit. After touring the 20 kilometers by bike, they make a stop for lunch. It is not uncommon to take advantage of some photo to take a break, not even to see military aircraft passing over the heads, while making manoeuvres in the Bardenas shooting field.

Rodriguez remembered the scare he was given when he started teaching in Argia and when he heard a bomb: “I thought it was an earthquake.” However, students are used to hearing the explosion of explosions. “Those who come from other places in Euskal Herria to the March of the Bardenas do not know and are surprised; in case, we teachers worry that they do not enter the field of shooting.”

After lunch, the second batch starts: the second part is more pronounced and hard. “‘I will not do it’ is heard often.” In the Ribera, something similar happens with the Basque country. According to Rodríguez, many young people in the area are not naturalized to speak in Basque, they do not have a mother tongue. In addition, many of the 200 students of the ikastola Argia come from the towns of the south of Navarra, “and in these areas it is almost never spoken in Basque; in daily life it is not used”. That is why it is also interesting to bring young people closer to other environments in which the Basque Country is more entrenched, and to talk in that language with those of southern Navarre.

The Basque
is not official in the Ribera and, as a result of zoning, in the non-Basque area the educational system does not guarantee the teaching of model D. It is 43% of the territory of Navarre and, in particular, affects 180,000 inhabitants (28% of the population of Navarre). In this whole area of 4,215 square kilometers managed by 110 municipalities, in addition to the ikastola Argia, only six public centers (Caparroso, Carcastillo, Castejón, Centronico y Lodosa) and a concerted one (Ikastola Ibaialde de Lodosa) offer the possibility of studying in Basque if there is sufficient demand. However, once Primary Education is completed, there is no higher cycle in these centers, and everyone has a controversial English model PAI, except for Ibaialde. In Tudela, the largest city in the south, there are none. “Once the ESO is over, students have to leave out if they want to continue their studies,” explains Rodríguez.

According to the professor of Physical Education, the students of the last year of Argia, 4. It is those of the ESO who are most concerned with speaking Basque at the March of the Bardenes: “They already have that point of maturity and try to relate in Basque with students from outside.” They are also the ones who dare to do the second part of the 11-kilometer Cycling March between Castildetierra and the Virgen del Yugo.

“In this part we see most of the tomato faces,” says Soinketa’s professor laughing. However, as with the use of the Basque Country, at first they blush, but in the end the strength of a large group of Euskal Herria “encourages the timid adolescents” and almost all make the second part of the March. In the end, migas and chistorra await a very special typical meal.

“It’s an experience that former students remember with a smile later.” Ikastola Argia intends to continue repeating the experience. Today, the main objective of the March of the Bardenas is to promote Euskera among the students of the Ribera; in the future, they would like the Basque Country not to need stimulus in this corner of Euskal Herria, and that the goal of the March was none other than to enjoy nature.