Joxi Imaz, Edu Apodaka, Gurutze Ezkurdia and Paulo Iztueta
09-04-2022, BERRIA.
Abstract:
The authors of this article emphasise that, beyond the eternal argument about the public or private education models in the Basque education system, the ikastolas comprise the only school system in Euskal Herria (the Basque Country). The ikastolas emerged 100 years ago as cooperatives founded by parents committed to the Basque language, culture and nation, as a form of resistance against the centralised educational systems of Spain and France.
The public school, in a stateless nation like ours, is currently Spanish or French, and not Basque, the authors remind us.
In contrast, the ikastolas are the only educational system implemented across the entire Basque Country, above administrative and state divisions. And the only educational system in which a specific Basque curriculum is implemented, in which students learn the geography and history of our nation.
