Txurdinaga's families have gone to justice to protest the closure of the high school

The families of the IES Txurdinaga Behekoa in Bilbao have complained to the courts about the closure of the institute and have asked to know whether the lack of information received about the future of the school would violate the rightsof the student  and have asked the Department of Education to protect public education .

The families have explained that they have spent "several months trying to get answers and asking for meetings in order to be able to know transparently what was going to happen." They have finally decided to go to court to consider whether the administration's "silence" and "uncertainty" caused are in accordance with the law or have violated the fundamental rights of students.

The uncertainty that families are talking about began a few months ago with the announcement of a "gradual dissolution of the high school," just as students were facing the final straight of the school year, families have explained, causing "additional pressure on teenagers that should never have existed."

Closure of public schools

The families of Txurdinaga Behekoa do not ask for "preferential treatment, but for public education to be a real political priority" and recall the words of the Education Counsellor, Begoña Pedrosa, who said that "the strength of the public school begins with the strength of each school".

In this context, they do not understand that this discourse in favour of the public school means, in practice, the closure of classrooms, the reduction of educational supply and the weakening of public projects recognised for their quality and social function. "It is particularly incomprehensible that the IES Txurdinaga Behekoa is not a declining centre", but "a institute highly recognized for the quality of its educational project, the Artistic Baccalaureate, the specialization in the Performing Arts and the pedagogical model that has been able to make diversity solid".

Families highlight the centre's integrative work , which encompasses students with specific needs for educational support and from different backgrounds and social realities, and emphasize that this diversity is the essence of the public school. In this regard, they question whether political decisions weaken this educational network and ask why ,in the face of the fall in the birth rate , the first closures always affect public schools.