Javier went this morning to demonstrate at the doors of the Department of Education of the Community of Madrid. Neither the rain nor the cold have been enough reasons to stay home. “The reasons why we are here today outweigh,” he says. Javier – the pseudonym under which he has decided to present himself – is one of the hundreds of secondary school teachers who this Tuesday took to the streets to demand improvements in public education from the Ayuso Government. In his case, what worries him most are the difficulties in providing quality attention to students. “I have ten students with special needs in class and it is impossible to dedicate more than two minutes a day to each one,” he explains to Somos Madrid.
This problem is one of the main issues why Madrid teachers are on strike today: the increase in classroom ratios. In secondary school there are already more than 30 students per class and the teachers feel “stifled.” Added to this issue are others such as the school hours, which rose from 18 to 22 hours, the salary, below the Spanish average despite the high cost of life in Madrid, or the freedom to choose the day. “We have a lot at stake,” says Javier.
While the protesters organize at the doors of the Ministry, the rain is getting heavier. “We prefer to get wet than to bow down,” comments one of the attendees. The strike, supported by the unions of the Sectorial Board, has mobilized, according to CCOO data, 70% of Madrid teachers.
From the union they point to a “massive mobilization” that maintains the trend of previous strikes, and even surpasses it. The incidence has once again been higher in Secondary, although the participation of Early Childhood and Primary teachers has suffered a notable increase: “The teachers are expressing their unanimous support for the reduction in teaching hours, the reduction of the ratio and the hiring of teachers sufficient to apply these measures as well as to address the diversity of Madrid students and pay equalization.”
A crusade between teachers and the counselor
The union version contrasts with the data released this morning by the Minister of Education, Science and Universities, Emilio Viciana, who has estimated the follow-up of the strike at 18%. Viciana is another of the targets of the concentrated teachers for her “disastrous management” since she took office, something that Isabel Galvín, general secretary of Education at CCOO, has criticized in statements to the media: “She has been missing since the “Last June 21 and it seems that he has not had time to attend to us.”
After several months of silence and with the strike already called, the Minister of Education called the unions to a meeting a few days ago to present a proposal, although the content has not yet been advanced. The 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 attendees, such as Teresa Jusdado, from UGT, do not have “many expectations” .
From the Education press office they assure that the Ministry “has always reaffirmed its willingness to continue working together” and recognize that the reduction of school hours “seems like a reasonable proposal, but it must be done progressively.”
When asking teachers for their opinion on these statements, the majority agree in their response: “We don’t believe anything.” Some groups, such as the Less Lectivas Assembly, consider that Ayuso’s educational policy is a list of measures announced solely to get headlines, with which it seeks “distraction” and “confrontation.”
Both unions and teachers demand “real measures” and warn that they are “reaching the limit.” “They are not aware of how frustrating it is for a teacher not to be able to give each student the attention they deserve and see how every day they are younger in class and we work longer hours in exchange for lower salaries. We are drowned and we can’t take it anymore,” Javier denounces.
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 Education schools that are built in the region and will teach 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, specifically against the provisions of Royal Decree 132/2010, of February 12, which establishes the conditions that secondary schools must meet. , as this newspaper already reported.
“Madrid has launched a crusade against public education teachers,” union groups report. In any case, the Madrid teachers are clear: “We are not going to stop.” After an intense morning of mobilizations, 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.”
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