The Basque Government approves the Draft Education Law of the Basque Country

The spokesperson for the Basque Government and Councillor for Culture and Language Policy, Bingen Zupiria, appeared at the usual press conference after the Governing Council, together with the Education Councillor, Jokin Bildarratz, who presented the Basque Country Draft Education Law approved today by the Governing Council and sent to the Parliament for processing.  Jokin Bildarratz has highlighted that the main purpose of the Draft Education Law is to offer Basque students the best possible education; a quality, inclusive education, with equal opportunities, Basque speaking, with public school as an essential pillar and with a firm commitment towards innovation. “A new text that responds to current challenges, but looking to the future, offering us the necessary tools to move towards an increasingly prepared and cohesive society”, has highlighted. 

The Draft Law is headed by a statement of reasons and includes a total of 101 articles, divided into six titles: General Provisions; Right to education and positive coexistence; Governance of the educational system; Languages in Basque education; Innovation, assessment and continuous improvement; and Autonomy of educational centers. These titles gather the backbone of the Draft Law, representing the challenges and the path we have marked as society to continue moving forward. 

According to the Councillor Bildarratz, today an intense process of listening and discussion is completed, "an intense, demanding... but undoubtedly, exciting process". The Councillor of Education stressed the importance of facing this challenge with the involvement of different agents that constitute the Basque Education System and the participation of the whole society, in order for us to define the bases of a new Education Law, 30 years later. “I confess to you that, for me as a counsellor, and for my entire team, it is a special day. But I am convinced that it is also special for the hundreds of people who have been involved in this project,” he added. 

AGREEMENTS OF THE GOVERNING COUNCIL

As usual, the spokesperson, Bingen Zupiria, provided information on other issues discussed in the Governing Council, including the following:

On the one hand, the Government has decided, at today's meeting, to continue the tax education program in which more than a thousand schools have participated so far. As Zupiria has explained, the Government understands that this initiative is worth continuing given that 132 schools participated in the first course and 262 in this course and it has been extended to a larger group of students. “By understanding the social meaning of taxes, it is considered that it will be easier to embrace also the harmful effects of fraud and we trust that there will be a natural predisposition against it,” he said.

Likewise, with the aim of giving continuity to the task of Historical Memory, the Governing Council has agreed to allocate €80,000 to subsidize the publication of unpublished non-fiction books and the making of documentaries that address the recovery of the democratic memory of the Basque Country from the Civil War until nowadays.

The Government has approved today as well the order on the programme of aid to the public transport sector of goods and travellers for this year due to abandonment of activity due to their advanced age. The spokesman has explained that it is a program that began in the year 2000 and that since then it has been addressed to carriers 63 and 64 years old, who have been declared an absolute, total permanent disability or a major disability. In 2023, this aid line will have a budget of 450,000 euros, 12% more than in 2022.

Within the field of health, one more year, it has been agreed to convene aids from the Health Department aimed at entities of social initiative and non-profit that during 2023 develop activities of prevention and control of HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C or Sexually Transmitted Infections in the Basque Country, for an amount of 300,000 euros.  Thus, the Health Department maintains the impetus of the work being carried out in the Basque Country by these organizations in the field of these diseases, an essential work together with the action of the different public administrations in the common cause of preventing the transmission of these infections and improving the situation of people already carrying the virus, with priority given to the most socioeconomically vulnerable groups.

Finally, and linked to the Department of Culture and Language Policy, on the one hand, the Government will finance with 700,000 euros the literary production in Basque and Castilian Spanish, as well as audiobooks in Basque. On the other hand, an item has been approved of 280,000 euros to support projects, research programs or activities that develop foundations and associations linked to political parties represented in the Basque Parliament.