This article analyses the creation of the schools called "ikastolas" throughout the Basque Country from the 1960s onwards. The name "ikastola" refers to a unique school model whose major characteristic is to teach the majority of subjects in the Basque language, or "euskera." It outlines the reasons why some of these schools took a co-operative organisational form and describes their major characteristics. The first part analyses the opportunities created under the Francoist regime for this kind of school, despite the repressive character of the dictatorship in other fields. The second part of the paper examines the important influence of the Mondragón co-operative movement, especially through its financial institution, in the creation of these educational co-operatives. The third and last part emphasises the role played by social mobilisation in defence of the Basque language in the creation of these schools and how this factor tied in with a co-operative governance system.