Two hours before the start of the patent science test, the tone is more of a challenge than an anxiety:
"I will write in Basque, and too bad if I have to have zero!"
launches Otxanda, 14 years old.
If we give up writing in Basque, it will eventually disappear. We have to think about the students of future years. ”
Like 200 other students schooled in immersive schools in the Basque Country, the third from Larceveau college decided to return their copy in the regional language, despite instructions from the rectorate which has opposed its refusal for two years.
“I first thought about writing in French, because I don't already have very good grades. But it's for a good cause, ”
says Kattalin, 14, from the playground.
Read also: Regional languages: immersive education in question
Since 2018, the science test has crystallized the entire debate around immersive schools in the region.
While article L121-3 of the Education Code establishes French as the reference language for teaching, exams and competitions, a 2017 circular authorizes students to compose geo-history in Basque, all like math.
But when science was added to the curriculum, in 2018, the exception for the regional language was not granted.
"The rectorate asked that it be composed in French, without further explanation,"
annoys Peio Jorajuria, president of the Seaska federation, the network of ikastolas, Basque schools.
“Last year, they sorted the copies and made sure that the ones written in Basque were distributed to non-Basque-speaking proofreaders.
The average fluctuated between 1 and 2 out of 20, ”he
says.
Basque lessons, French exams
“Absurd and Unjust”
, for the professor of physics and chemistry Eñaut Elosegi.
“All year round, I teach in Basque. The students prepare the program in this language, and they are asked, on the day of the exam, to switch to French. This can create additional difficulties for some students
. ” This worries in particular Elaia, a third year pupil:
“I learned everything in Basque, I worked all year in this language. I wasn't going to translate all of my lessons ”
. A father of a student educated in an immersive establishment draws the same conclusions:
“Certain science formulas are technical. I noticed that my son sometimes had trouble switching from Basque to French in mathematics. ”
Despite repeated demonstrations organized since May 19, the rectorate firmly reminded the Seaska Federation that
"the administrative framework which governs this issue remains unchanged".
A question of principle, according to Peio Jorajuria:
“There is a relentlessness around this scientific test.
From a technical point of view, we would have a largely sufficient number of Basque-speaking teachers to correct this test. ”
Avoid the majority of Basque
“With science, half of the written exams for the patent are in French. National Education does not want Basque to become the main language, even in an immersive school ”
, analyzes Eñaut Elosegi. In an interview with
Ouest-France
, Jean-Michel Blanquer had indicated that he feared that
“unlimited immersive teaching (could) be a problem.
»At the end of May, the Constitutional Council had revoked the so-called Molac bill, which aimed to promote regional languages, yet adopted by Parliament on April 8, by censoring in particular the immersive teaching of languages and the use of diacritics such as the tilde (~) in civil status documents.
In this context, exams are a point of tension between immersive schools and National Education. Forty students from a high school in Bayonne had already disobeyed, in mid-June, by writing their philosophy test in the Basque language
. "The exams have a strong symbolic significance for the students and the teachers, because they represent the culmination of a schooling followed in the regional language"
, analyzes Olivier Mioque, head of the transmission pole within the public office of the Basque language .
“Family and generational transmission is increasingly rare. Few people in the 30-60 age group have received an education in Basque. School is the last link to bring the language to life for the new generation ”
, he continues. Members of the Seaska Federation called for a demonstration on July 1 in Saint-Palais.