On the 1st of April, last week, teachers, parents and students of the Basque immersion school system (Seaska) in the North Basque Country occupied the building of the Public Organisation of the Basque Language (Euskararen Erakunde Publikoa) in Baiona. This institution is supposed to help the Basque language in both public and private ambits of the North Basque Country. The protest was actually two-fold.
The first protest is by the secondary school students who want to do all their Baccalauréat and Brevet exams, coming up this May and June in the Basque language. As immersion school students, they study everything except the French class in Basque. So, naturally, they want to do the exams for the subjects in the same language that they've been studying in.
Up until now, they have been allowed to write their Brevet exams in History and Mathematics in Basque, but not Science (Technology/Physical Sciences), which they are obliged to do in French.
In 2017, that year's students actually did do their Science exams in Basque, still very much against the will of the National Education and the National Education were pressured into getting Basque speaking correctors to correct it. However every year since then, the exams have been given to non-Basque speaking correctors, and thus the students who choose to do it in Basque are given failing marks. As for the Bac, the students were previously allowed to do the History, Geography and Mathematics in Basque, but it seems that even this is very much in doubt for this year.
So they occupied the office, and forced François-Xavier Pestel, the academic inspector for the region, to have a meeting with Seaska representatives. In this video you can see the students very much getting into his face, demanding 'Azterketak euskaraz!' ('Exams in Basque!'). He looks quite uncomfortable. Can't ignore them so easily can you when you're looking directly at those accusing young faces, instead of giving orders through email, huh? At one point the Seaska director who is negotiating with the inspector has to tell his students 'emeki, otoi' ('please, quiet') and they actually do! Students that listen to their teacher?
I LOVE ME A COMBATIVE YOUTH.
I'm reminded of what I said about the Zuberoan town of Larraine, population 196. When I went to the only restaraunt in the town and could not get service in Basque, but the restaurant owner straightforwardly told me that I could get it in Spanish. Of course, I walked out. And I'll keep walking out of wherever establishment in the Basque Country where they make me speak French or Spanish.
French and Spanish speakers need to have Basque rubbed into their faces. These people think that Basque speakers are going to lay down, roll over and die peacefully. They're wrong.
If these people won't understand the cultural and social reasons behind learning and speaking the language of the country, by God they'll understand the monetary reason. Let's be honest the amount of money they'll lose for not knowing Basque is miniscule, the waves of French tourists more than outweighs the purchasing power of some Basque speaking farmers enjoying their retirement, but they have to KNOW that it's not okay. I'm not saying make a giant fuss and flip tables. But they need to have it exposed to their face, someone needs to push it into their nose, they need to be pricked by an annoying mosquito. Whether in the South Basque Country or in the North Basque Country.
The other part of the protest was represented by parents living in Larraine, who are demanding the opening of an immersion model in their public school. At the time I was there, I also got to have a talk with the Basque teacher in the local public school, and already there were talks about implementing the immersion system.
Well, the parents are mightily angry because it's been a year since they put in the request for an immersion model, and they've received no response whatsoever from the National Education, neither yes nor no. So they came to Baiona, two hours or so by car from home, brought their kids and some desks and blackboards, set it up front and hoped to meet the academic inspector to press their demands. Unfortunately, he basically ran away from the parents and jumped into his car. I'm guessing if the parents did the same thing as the students and blocked his way out, he would have been forced to talk.
That is why the parent representative, Maitesa Akozeberri is so pissed off. In the first part of the video she's hopeful and wanting to meet the inspector to press her demands. I'm not going to transcribe everything, but she explains there that they lost a year of studying Basque ('ürtea galtzen diagü euskarik ikasi gabe, gure eskolan') and she doesn't understand why the immersion model in her town is being held up when it's been accepted for other towns in the region ('ez diagü konprenitzen nolaz Larraineko eskolak ez düen baimenik ükaiten, alta beste eskolikan üngürünetan galto egin').
In the second part, it's after the inspector flipped her off. She then launches into a determined, passionate and let me say, inspiring speech. She mentions how the powers that be, act with complete disregard and disdain with regards to the common people ('dena behar dizü ürgüilüz blokatü), but even though she is at a loss, they won't let the French education system wear them down ('ez dakit nondik behar den hartü bena egiazki, akitü...ez dizügü ütziko'). They'll keep on fighting to ensure their children can study in Basque. Meanwhile in the background, the students fortuitously launch into the song Guk Euskaraz, almost as if to reinforce her determination.
A final word on the mayor of Larraine, Jean-Dominique Idiart, who I had the pleasure of meeting. He's a Basque nationalist. Last year he gave this interview, in which he said that he'd be ready to create an immersion system for the school even if the French national education system said no:
Ez dute inolako problemarik izan inmertsio bortxatua egiteko guri frantsesa erakusteko, zanpatuak izan gara gu eskolan, punituak eta umiliatuak. Ez dut inolako problemarik hori errateko zeren ez naiz bakarra, eta aipatzen dut ere erreparazio historikoa, edozeinek egin behar du, errekonozitzen badute gaizki egin dutela, eta niretako gaizki egin dute zapuztea gure hizkuntza, gure kultura, gure nortasuna. Hori behar dugu esplikatu eta lortu berdintasuna gure hizkuntza eta gure kulturarentzat. Erraten dudan horretan non da eskandalua? Egia delarik ez da eskandalua izan behar.
They (the French authorities) never had any problem with forced immersion when they taught us French. We were oppressed in school, punished and humiliated. I don't have any problem with saying it, because I'm not the only one. And I bring up historical reparations as well, anyone should do it if they recognise that they did wrong things, and in my opinion they did wrong things when they crushed our language, our culture, our identity. That's what we need to explain, and we need to achieve equality for our language and culture. Where's the scandal in what I'm saying? As it's the truth, there's no need for it to be a scandal.
With parents, teachers and students like this in the North Basque Country, there's much to be hopeful for.