DOCUMENT RESUME FL 026 689 ED 452 716 Stuijt, Mark AUTHOR Basque: The Basque Language in Education in France. Regional TITLE Dossiers Series. Fryske Academy, Leeuwarden (Netherlands). INSTITUTION Mercator-Education. European-Commission, Brussels (Belgium). SPONS AGENCY 1998-00-00 PUB DATE 33p.; Prepared with assistance from Maido Garay, Mme NOTE Basmoreau, and Thierry Delbel. For other documents in the series, see FL 026 686-88 and FL 026 690-94. Mercator-Education, P.O. Box 54, 8900 AB AVAILABLE FROM Ljouwert/Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. Tel: 31-58-2131414; Fax: 31-58-2131409; e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: http://www.fa.knaw.nl/uk/mercator/fa-merc.html. Descriptive Reports Collected Works Serials (022) PUB TYPE (141) MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. EDRS PRICE *Basque; Cultural Maintenance; Educational Policy; Ethnic DESCRIPTORS Groups; Foreign Countries; French; *Heritage Education; *Language Maintenance; Language Minorities; *Language Planning; National Programs; *Native Language Instruction; Official Languages; Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; Uncommonly Taught Languages European Union; France IDENTIFIERS ABSTRACT This regional dossier'aims to provide concise, descriptive information and basic educational statistics about minority language education in a specific region of the European Union--the southwestern part of France, also known as the North Basque country. Details are provided about the features of the educational system, recent educational policies, divisions of responsibilities, main actors, legal arrangements, support structures, and qualitative information on a number of schools, teachers, pupils, and financial investments. This information is designed to serve the needs of policy makers, researchers, teachers, students, and journalists as they assess the developments in European minority language schooling. This information may also serve as a first orientation towards further research (additional readings are suggested and contact information provided). Specifically, information is provided on preschool, primary, secondary, vocational, higher, and adult education, as well as a review of educational research, summary statistics, and overall prospects for the use of the language under study. The subject of this dossier is Basque or Euskara. It is a language completely surrounded by Indo-European languages and yet is totally different--a fact that has interested researchers for centuries. It is spoken in three provinces in France and four in Spain. (Contains 24 references.) (KFT) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Basque MERCATOR-EDUCATION information documentation research/recherche The Basque language in education in France U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) phis document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) * numerically small language communities 2 AVAILABLE BEST COPY This document was published by Mercator-Education with financial support from the Fryske Akademy and the European Commission. (DG XXII: Education, Traning and Youth) Mercator-Education, 1998 Mercator-Education P.O. Box 54 8900 AB Ljouwert/Leeuwarden The Netherlands tel.: +31-58-2131414 fax: +31-58-2131409 e-mail: mercator @fa.knaw.nl website: http://www.fa.knaw.nl/mercator print, except for commercial The contents of this publication may be reproduced in proceeded by a complete reference to Mercator- purposes, provided that the extract is languages and education. Education: European network for regional or minority assisted by Maido Garay, Mme This regional dossier was established by Mark Stuijt, Occitan dossier as regards the Basmoreau and Mr. Thierry Delbel. It is inspired by the 1996-1997, unless stated education system in France. Data reflect the situation in otherwise. 3 Contents Foreword to the regional dossiers 1 Introduction to this issue 2 1 Pre-school education 2 7 Elementary education 9 3 Secondary education 4 12 Vocational education 5 15 Higher edcuation 6 15 Adult education 7 18 Educational research 8 19 Prospects 20 9 Summary statistics 21 10 Outline of education system 22 Notes 23' References 24 26 Addresses 4 Foreword to the regional dossiers For several years now, Mercator-Education has attempted to background achieve one of its principal goals: to gather, store and distribute information on minority language education in European regions. Regional or minority languages are languages which differ from the official language of that State and which are traditionally used within a given territory of that State by nationals of that State forming a group numerically smaller than the rest of the State's population.' To date, Mercator-Education has been successful in establishing a computerized data bank containing bibliographic data, information about persons and organizations involved with minority language issues, and data collected during four inventory studies on pre-school education (Goot, Renkema & Stuijt, 1994), primary education (Sikma & Gorter, 1991), learning materials (Tjeerdsma & Sikma, 1994) and teacher training (Dekkers, 1995). In addition there is a need for documents stating in brief the most essential features of the educational system of regions with an autochthonous lesser used language. With the establishment of regional dossiers it is intended to meet this need. Regional dossiers aim at providing concise descriptive aim information and basic educational statistics about minority language education in a specific region of the European Community. This kind of information, such as features of the educational system, recent educational policies, division of responsibilities, main actors, legal arrangements, support structures, and also quantitative information on the number of schools, teachers, pupils and financial investments, can serve several purposes. Policy makers, researchers, teachers, students and journalists target group may use the information provided to assess developments in European minority language schooling. They can also use a regional dossier as a first orientation towards further research (further reading and addresses are included) or as a source of ideas for improving educational provision in their own region. 2 Education and lesser used languages In order to link these regional descriptions with those of link with national educational systems, it was decided to follow the EURYDICE format used by EURYDICE, the European education information network in the European Union. EURYDICE provides information on the administration and structure of all levels of education in Member States of the European Union.2 The information provided in the regional dossiers is focused on language use at the various levels of education. The remainder of this dossier consists firstly of an introduction contents to the region under study, followed by six sections each dealing with a specific level of the educational system. Sections eight to ten cover research, prospects and summary statistics. These brief descriptions contain factual information presented in a readily accessible way. For detailed information and political discussions about language use at the various levels of education, the reader is referred to other sources. Introduction to this issue 1 Basque, or Euskara, is a language completely surrounded by language Indo-European languages and yet it is totally different. This More aspect has interested European researchers for centuries. recently, also in Japan and the US the interest has grown considerably. The obscure origins of Basque made numerous theories arise to account for its ancestry. It is beyond the scope of this dossier to enumerate such theories3. Nowadays, the area where Basque is spoken, is called Euskal Herri or Basque Country. This area comprises seven historical provinces: four in Spain (Araba/Alava, Bizkaia/Vizcaya, Gipuzkoa/Guipuzcoa and Nafarroa/Navarra) called Southern Basque country or Hegoalde, and three in France (Lapurdi/Labourd, Nafarroa Beherea/Basse Navarre and Zuberoa/Soule). In this dossier we will discuss the situation of the North Basque country or Iparralde. Iparralde occupies about Regional dossier Basque (F) 3 two fifths (3,060 km2) of the French departement Pyrenees- At !antiques. Of all 212,400 inhabitants in Iparralde4, there are approximately population 67,000 Basque speakers or 32 %. Recent surveys show that though the number of Basque speakers in Iparralde is diminishing, there is a general tendency favourable towards the promotion of the use of Basque, also in public domains. It has to be mentioned that in Iparralde Basque has never been used by the authorities. In France the Basque language, just like other regional legislation languages, has no specific status nor any official recognition. It is unlikely that this situation will change within short: the negative French attitude towards signing the European Charter of Regional and Minority Languages of the Council of Europe may be indicative. The French education system is largely state controlled education system although some decentralization measures were taken in the eighties. School attendance is compulsory from 6 to 16, but children can be accepted in schools from the age of 2 years. Curricula are being made for all compulsory schooling levels. A basic principle is free public education and the opportunity for every young person to take up vocational training before he or she leaves the systems. During the period of compulsory education, payment of family allowances to parents is subject to registration and regular school attendance of their children. Iparralde shares the education system with all other regions of France. In its constitution, France advocates the idea of state education public and in order to promote the values of the Republic itself. All private teachers are paid by the national government through its Public Education Department (Education Nationale). 4 Education and lesser used languages Alongside the public education system, there are various categories of private schools. The most common ones are the confessional, catholic schools. In most cases these schools have signed a contract with the State, allowing them substantial support for teachers' salaries and teacher training. Such schools must adhere to timetables applied to public education. Another type of schools present in Iparralde are the Basque immersion schools or ikastolas: they will be discussed below. Since the Deixonne law (1951) and subsequent implementation specific measures, such as the Savary circular (1982), Basque language provisions for and culture may be taught for 1 to 3 hours a week in public regional education, if the teacher is willing and able to do it. Therefore languages extra teaching hours are offered outside the curriculum. According to the Savary circular, also bilingual sections in public education institutes can be set up upon the request of at least 15 parents and with the consent of the mayor. Since 1991 a committee for regional languages works essentially to fix the exam for regional language and culture at the end of upper secondary school (baccalaureat), and sets up a list of voluntary teachers and examiners. In 1995, the Bayrou memorandum states the necessity of setting up a plan at the level of the academie for the teaching of Regional Languages and Cultures, including teacher training. Whether in public, catholic, or ikastola schools, the initiatives for introducing Basque have been encouraged by parents and teachers, rather than by officials. The Seaska association (which means literally "cradle") was set ikastolas up in Iparralde as an initiative of parents and teachers, who wish to recover the Basque language by immersion education. Analogous initiatives were also taking place in the Hegoalde. In 1969 it launched its first Basque medium school. Nowadays these ikastola schools can be found all over Iparralde. The number of ikastolas is still growing. The pedagogical reasons for choosing immersion teaching are that children must be able Regional dossier Basque (F) 5 to express themselves in Basque and be able to receive instruction through that language. A necessary condition for this teaching is that both school activities and out of school activities are carried out through Basque. Therefore the Seaska association exerts itself to encourage language development in a Basque surrounding. Seaska had to wait until 1982 to receive funding from the State, at the occasion of the agreement with Education Nationale. According to this agreement the Ministry takes over the teachers' salaries and takes care of their training and establishes the conditions and the contents of teaching. The agreement has to be renewed every year. Although formally still private schools, the ikastolas grow gradually towards public education and receive also funding from local authorities such as the departement and the towns or villages where such schools are set up. At this moment some 70 % of the funding comes through regional or state authorities. Parents have to contribute financially even though the schools are to be considered as part of the public education system. Lack of sufficient funding means that Seaska is constantly looking for further financial assistance. There are four administrative levels in France: state, region, administration departement and local community. At state level the Ministry of Education has almost total control over educational matters, such as defining the educational guidelines and curricula, the approval of diplomas, and recruitment, training and administration of staff. The State also produces regulations on questions of management and supervision with which the majority of private schools are also required to comply. Through the decentralization laws of 1982 the French tradition of Parisian presence everywhere in the education system changed and the role of the regions, departements and local communities somewhat increased. Nowadays, the regions are responsible for building and maintaining the premises of upper secondary schools (lycees) and institutes for vocational training. Departements have the same responsibility for schools for 6 Education and lesser used languages lower secondary education (colleges). Local communities or town councils are responsible for primary schools. A particular characteristic of the French educational system are academies the administrative units of education (academies). The 28 units roughly correspond to the 22 regions of France. Each academie is headed by a director (recteur) who represents the Ministry of Education and who is responsible for the management of primary and secondary schools and for the enforcement of national regulations within the territory of the academie. The entire Iparralde forms part of the Academie of Bordeaux, which covers the whole of Aquitania. In the territory of the academie Basque is not the only regional language, the other one is Occitan. The General Inspectorate assesses the school curriculum, the inspection exams and the competitive higher examinations in the name of the Ministry. General Inspectors are appointed by school subject or by administrative service. At the level of the academie the director is supported by Regional Pedagogic Inspectors, who are more specifically charged with assessing the teaching at secondary schools. In each departement, an inspector of the academie applies the ministerial and rectorial directives and manages more particularly primary school education and these inspectors are in charge of the assessment of primary school and lower secondary teachers. They are assisted by pedagogical counsellors. Since 1994 the Academie of Bordeaux employs a full time counsellor for regional languages and cultures to help the inspector of the Pyrenees-Atlantiques departement. The counsellor has competence in Occitan, and his deputy assists in specific Basque affairs. Besides the official framework, there are voluntary associations, voluntary promoting the teaching of regional languages. The Seaska support association has been mentioned earlier. 1.0