Javier went this morning to demonstrate in front of the doors of the Department of Education of the Community of Madrid. Neither the rain nor the cold were sufficient reasons to stay home. “The reasons why we are here today prevail,” he said. Javier – the pseudonym under which he decided to present himself – is one of hundreds of secondary school teachers who took to the streets this Tuesday to demand improvements in public education from the Ayuso government. In his case, what worries him the most are the difficulties in providing quality attention to students. “I have ten students with special needs in class and it is impossible to devote more than two minutes a day to each one,” he explains to Somos Madrid.
This problem is one of the main reasons why Madrid teachers are on strike today: the increase in class ratios. In secondary school, there are already more than 30 students per class and the teachers feel “suffocated”. Added to this problem are others such as class hours, which go from 18 to 22 hours, the salary, lower than the Spanish average despite the high cost of living in Madrid, or even the freedom to choose your day. “We have a lot at stake,” says Javier.
While the demonstrators organize themselves at the doors of the ministry, the rain gets heavier. “We prefer to get wet rather than bow down,” comments one of the participants. The strike, supported by the unions of the Sectoral Commission, mobilized, according to CCOO data, 70% of Madrid teachers.
On the union side, they underline a “massive mobilization” which maintains the trend of previous strikes and even exceeds it. The incidence was again higher at secondary level, although the participation of early childhood and primary school teachers saw a notable increase: “Teachers express their unanimous support for the reduction of teaching hours, the reduction of the ratio and the hiring of teachers. sufficient to apply these measures as well as to take into account the diversity of Madrid students and the equalization of salaries.
A crusade between teachers and counselor
The union version contrasts with data published this morning by the Minister of Education, Science and Universities, Emilio Viciana, who estimated the follow-up of the strike at 18%. Viciana is another of the targets of teachers focused for her “disastrous management” since taking office, which Isabel Galvín, general secretary of Education of CCOO, criticized in statements to the media: “She has disappeared since the “Last June 21, it seems he didn’t have time to take care of us.”
After several months of silence and when the strike was already underway, the Minister of Education summoned the unions to a meeting a few days ago to present a proposal, even if the content has not yet been put forward. The trade union organizations and Viciana will meet this Thursday at noon in a meeting that the workers’ representatives have been demanding since last September 12 and about which some of their participants, like Teresa Jusdado, of the UGT, have not “much of expectations.”
From the Education press office, it is assured that the Ministry “has always reaffirmed its desire to continue working together” and recognizes that the reduction of school hours “seems to be a reasonable proposal, but it must be done gradually”.
When teachers were asked their opinion on these statements, the majority agreed in their response: “We don’t believe anything.” Some groups, such as the Less Lectivas Assembly, consider Ayuso’s educational policy to be a list of measures announced only to make headlines, with which she seeks to “distract” and “confront”.
Unions and teachers demand “real measures” and warn they are “reaching the limit”. “They don’t realize how frustrating it is as a teacher to not be able to give each student the attention they deserve and to see that every day they are younger in class and we are working longer hours in class. exchange of lower wages. We are drowning and we can’t take it anymore,” denounces Javier.
Madrid teachers have not responded well to the latest proposals from the regional government. The President advocates including mandatory split days in all new public early childhood and primary schools that are being built in the region and which will teach the 1st and 2nd years of compulsory secondary education (ESO).
Despite the announcement, the inclusion of first cycle ESO classes in schools is prohibited by educational law, in particular against the provisions of Royal Decree 132/2010, of February 12, which establishes the conditions that secondary schools must meet, as this newspaper has previously reported. .
“Madrid has launched a crusade against public education teachers,” report union groups. In any case, the Madrid teachers are clear: “We are not going to stop. » After an intense morning of mobilization, this afternoon, at 5:30 p.m., they will take to the streets again to demonstrate to the Ayuso government that “fighting is also teaching”.
