Euskadi requests contributions for the decree of autonomy of the schools, which will be able to define their own “linguistic project”

The Minister of Education, Begoña Pedrosa, signed an order at 8:25 a.m. on December 26 to collect contributions for a new decree that will develop the 2023 law – although it came into force in February 2024 – regarding giving greater autonomy to the centers. The regulations, among other points, will set the limits of how far the “educational project” of each school can go, particularly with regard to the “linguistic project.” There is legal margin until February 2026, two years after the regulations, to have it approved.

During the processing of the educational reform, the language issue was very controversial. The text drew on a 2022 political agreement between the Government’s partners, PNV and PSE-EE, and the two main opposition forces at the time, EH Bildu and the defunct Podemos and IU coalition. For the compulsory stage up to 16 years of age, a single framework was proposed with Basque as the axis that guaranteed a B2 in the two official languages ​​and a B1 in the foreign language, mainly English. It could have center-to-center adaptations depending on its social reality. However, in the parliamentary process the socialists insisted on an amendment to preserve the current models, A in Spanish, D in Basque and B mixed. Finally, the Executive carried out the law without support from the opposition.

In Pedrosa’s document nothing is mentioned about models A, B and D. In fact, the autonomy of the centers is formulated in very similar terms to those of the previous agreement. Specifically, it mentions “the configuration of a multilingual and intercultural framework that takes Basque and Basque culture as its axes, as well as the mastery of the two official languages, Basque and Spanish, with Basque as its own language, and optimal knowledge of at least one foreign language.” The PSE-EE itself, in its political presentation for its imminent congress, does not cite the models but rather the necessary overcoming of this framework consolidated for decades by regulations that are not educational but of Basque language.

Pedrosa states that the decree “wants to make a decisive option so that the central axis of decision-making is located within the scope of the center and its management.” Giving prominence to schools and, within them, those responsible, will be essential for the “transformation” of the Basque educational system, also in other areas such as “equity” or “social cohesion”, it is argued.

Education is aware that the decree will have general measures, others for schools of what has been baptized as “Public Education Service”, that is, those financed with public money, and the last exclusively for those of public ownership, which barely They include 50% of the total student body in Euskadi, a Basque singularity. The counselor recalls that the law raises the figure of “program contracts”, the bilateral agreements of a center – or a group of them – with the Administration, to which the “annual management plans” must be added. “Centers must have their own margin of autonomy that allows them to adapt their actions to their specific circumstances and the characteristics of their students, with the aim of achieving academic success for all students,” can be read in the order to remove public consultation on the new decree.