Applying to Ikastolak

Today at Berria English what I would call excellent news:

Record number of applications for Ikastola school places in last 10 years

The Partaide School network has asked the Education Department of the Basque Autonomous Community Government to renegotiate the map of direct-grant schools, because their offer has been “stretched to the limit” in many areas

Iñigo Bilbao – BILBO

The Partaide network of Ikastolas has asked the Education Department of the Basque Government to renegotiate the map of direct-grant schools, because the offer of their schools has been “stretched to the limit” in many cases. Another six or seven direct grant streams will be needed to respond to the demand they have received during the registration period that has just ended. This is especially so in Gipuzkoa, because a number of children have been left out due to a shortfall in the number of places.

In Navarre the Ikastolas are full to bursting and in the Iruñea area, even though 78 children more than those authorised by the Administration have applied, all of them will have to be left out. If this upward trend continues in the coming years, the people in charge of the Association of Ikastolas will be looking into the possibility of opening a new Ikastola in Iruñea (Pamplona).

In Bilbo yesterday Koldo Tellitu, chairman of the Partaide Ikastolas, and Pello Mariñelarena, chairman of the Ikastola Association of Navarre, provided details of the reservations for school places: for the next academic year the highest number of children in the last ten years have had their names put down for places in the schools belonging to the Ikastola Association of Navarre and the Partaide Ikastolas Association. There are 2,934 applications for places in all. This year, however, they have been catering for 2,747 pupils. This means a 6.8% rise in the number of children applying for places.

The figure is significant for the Ikastolas of Araba, Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia; in 1993 the Public Basque School Law came into force in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country and this has enabled them to see the evolution that has taken place since then: the number who want to study at these schools has been increasing from one year to the next.

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