Basque-language schools: ikastolas, bilingual streams and classes for adults

Moving to the Basque Country with children, or keen to learn the language yourself? Basque (euskara) has an important place in schools on both sides of the border. Here’s how it works.

The north: three ways to learn in Basque

At the start of the 2025 school year, 10,709 nursery and primary pupils were in bilingual or immersion Basque education, or 43.8% of primary-level pupils (premier degré) in the French Basque Country (up from 24.5% in 2004). There are three streams:

• State bilingual schools — 5,798 pupils (37.4% of state-school pupils).
• Bilingual private faith schools — 2,365 pupils (37.2% of private-school pupils).
• Seaska’s ikastolas — 2,546 pupils, in immersion: Basque is the main language of instruction.

Seaska was founded in 1969 in Arcangues, with a first class of five pupils. In 2021 the federation had 38 ikastolas (including five collèges, or lower secondary schools, and the Bernat-Etxepare lycée, or upper secondary school, in Bayonne) and more than 4,100 pupils. They are private schools under contract with the state (sous contrat d’association), secular and run by parents' associations.

To find a school: the Public Office for the Basque Language (Office public de la langue basque, OPLB) publishes a list of schools offering a bilingual or immersion stream, and a map of what’s available (2 allée des Platanes, Bayonne).

The south: models A, B and D

In Euskadi (the Basque Autonomous Community), each family chooses a language model:

• Model A — teaching in Spanish, with Basque as a subject.
• Model B — teaching split between Spanish and Basque.
• Model D — teaching in Basque, with Spanish as a subject.

Model D is by far the most common: in 2016–2017 it covered 78.6% of nursery pupils and 72.9% of primary pupils.

In Navarre, the system is different: on top of models A, B and D there is a model G (in Spanish, with no Basque), and what’s on offer depends on the language zone — Basque-speaking in the north, mixed around Pamplona (Iruñea), non-Basque-speaking in the south.

Learning Basque as an adult

• AEK — founded in 1976, it is the only organisation teaching Basque to adults that operates across the whole Basque Country, the north included, with more than a hundred centres (euskaltegis). Every two years it organises the Korrika, a huge relay run in support of the language.
• HABE — a body funded by the Basque Government, set up in 1983, which oversees Basque teaching for adults and a network of euskaltegis in Euskadi.
• In the north, the OPLB is the public body to contact for anything to do with the Basque language.

And to ease yourself in gently: learn how to pronounce Basque place names.

Sources

• OPLB — Teaching of and in Basque: report on the 2025 school year (in French); Schools (in French)
• Wikipedia (fr) — Seaska
• Wikipedia (es) — Euskera en el sistema educativo; Bizkaia Talent — Basque language models
• Wikipedia (es): AEK, HABE

Ongi etorri — and happy learning!