Professional training material in Basque language

2003/04/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Elhuyarren berriak
• Enpresa
• Bibliografia

In the Training Cycles approximately half of the teachers are able to teach their classes in Basque, but only 10% of the students who attend the cycles receive classes in Basque. Behind this data there are many reasons, but undoubtedly one of the most important is the lack of adequate didactic material in Basque. There are few books in Basque published for the Training Cycles and, in general, they come from common subjects, that is, from subjects that all students must study.

In fact, the very nature of the Training Cycles, that is, the great thematic dispersion, has made that in many subjects there are very few potential users. Consequently, editorials publishing school books do not generally produce materials for these subjects, unless they are common subjects. Although the effort made by the Department of Education, Universities and Research of the Basque Government in recent years to subsidize through the EIMA program has paid off, and despite the increase in the supply of school materials, it is still very scarce when compared to demand and needs.

To deal with this situation, HETEL and IKASLAN of Vocational Training have launched the project called Lanbide Ekimena. After a day of open doors in various institutions and companies, both public and private, they have had the collaboration of the Directorate of Professional Training of the Basque Government, the Diputación de Bizkaia and BBK. The project was launched in September 2001.

Lanbide Ekimena is a multi-year plan to translate the school material into Basque and make it available to Internet users in electronic format.

The main objective of the project is to make available to all public material in Basque for the Training Cycles. That's not a matter of a day, because the demand for Vocational Training is great: More than 20 families with an average of 6-7 cycles per family and an average of 6-7 modules per cycle.

Selection of materials

The project was launched in June 2001 and at the end of the year the issues to be returned had been decided. In total eleven cycles of superior and medium grade of Mechanical Manufacturing, Administration and Electricity/Electronics were selected: Machining; Development of Mechanical Projects; Welding, Boilers and Metallic Constructions; Production by Casting and Pulvimetallurgy; Electronic Consumer Equipment (upper and middle); Development of Electronic Products; Automatic Control and Regulation Systems; Telecommunications Systems and Computer Systems; Management and Administrative Secretariat.

On October 31, 2002, it was agreed to initiate the return of material from four other families, including Health, Computer Science, Production Services, Maintenance and Agriculture and Livestock.

Translating the material into the Basque language

To deal with the technical part of the Lanbide Ekimena project and coordinate their work, the promoters went to the ELHUYAR Foundation for their experience in the field of translation and lexicography and terminology. However, the Elhuyar Foundation is not only present in this responsibility, but also promotes and coordinates the participation of other Basque translation companies and translators.

A selection of the themes and books will be translated before starting to translate. This choice is made by the teachers of the schools taking into account the needs of the students.

On the other hand, since users will be mainly teachers and students of Vocational Training, the material is located in a space known or close to them, in which the Professional Training Directorate has selected the portal organized in the server of the IMH of Elgoibar ( www.jakinbai.org ).