The schools of COAS Educational Group has been involved in an ambitious teaching project – the learning of languages from the early 1990s. It has pioneered this model in the Basque Autonomous Community and in la Rioja, and our project was recognized by the Department of Education of the Basque Government as a Project of Singular Innovation in the year 2000.
This trilingual plan is structured in the following way:
In the Basque domestic schools, the students of 1st and 2nd years experience total immersion in English and Basque, spending half of the day using both languages.
In students from 2nd course of pre-school education to Secondary level, immersion is divided equally in English, Basque and Spanish during teaching hours. Subjects are thought in these languages; a third of the day in each language is used.
The French language is becoming more and more commonly used. In Primary, through curricular contents in out-of-school hours and in Secondary by means of French language as a subject. 60% of the pupils choose this option.
Our schools also have a program of external exams whose function is as a survey of the contents acquired by the students and the achievement of the corresponding official certificate at various levels.
In the schools of La Rioja, immersion in the 1st course of primary is the same but in English and French. In all other courses trilingualism is carried out with the use of English, Spanish and French.