Ikastola

An Ikastola (plural Ikastolak) is a type of school in the Basque Autonomous Community, Navarre and (to a much lesser extent) the French Basque Country (see Basque Country) in which students are taught either entirely or predominantly in the Basque language.

History

Although spoken more widely than in later times, there was very little schooling undertaken in Basque before the early twentieth century revival in Basque nationalism. The first official ikastola was opened in 1914, and the movement to transfer the medium of education in the Basque Autonomous Community from Spanish to Basque became widespread late in the XX^th century. Following the Republican defeat in the Spanish Civil War, the public use of Basque was made illegal, and all educational institutions (if there was any) were obliged to teach entirely in Spanish, to the complete neglect of Basque. There are, however, isolated examples of ikastolak which clandestinely continued to teach in Basque. After the Civil War, the first official network of Ikastola was created by the Francoist provincial government of Alava in 1973 and were State financed. With the return of democracy following the death of Franco in 1975, large degrees of autonomy were given to the Basque Autonomous Community and Navarre, and ikastolak sprang up all over the Basque-speaking parts of northern Spain. In the present day, the majority of schoolchildren in the Basque Autonomous Community and northern Navarre attend ikastolak.

ee also

* Basque education system
* Irish-language gaelscoileana
* Scottish-Gaelic Gaelic Medium School
* Occitan-language calandretas

External links

Official site of the [http://www.ikastola.net/web/default.php Federation of Ikastolak] (Basque)