When things don’t work out the right way, universities have learned that the hard way can make things go a little better. The people of Madrid have spent several years surviving on the money they won from the Community of Madrid in trials a few years ago and the rest of the State is taking note. Now it is the Andalusian rectors who are threatening: they will resort to the courts if the Junta de Andalucía does not pay the 50 million euros that it “owes” them in 2024.
It has gone a little under the radar because Madrid is a centrifuge that eats everything and Ayuso enhances that effect even more, but the Madrid Executive is not the only one that is facing its campuses. The nine rectors demand 50 million euros from the Board and it does not seem willing to pay them. Next year the problem will only get worse: the amount owed will rise to 80 million euros.
Why do regional governments want to undermine that great public asset that is universities? I am not unaware of the privatization desires of depending on who, obviously, but I don’t know if these movements are being measured correctly. Universities are also a great economic engine in their autonomous communities. Attacking them is shooting yourself in the foot a bit.
Madrid seems to have understood something like this in recent days, as can be seen from its change of position regarding first the financing and finally the signing of the María Goyri agreement with the Ministry of Universities to co-finance the incorporation of a thousand teachers to the six centers public.
Last Thursday the agreement was signed and the act was a bit embarrassing. The Minister of Education of Madrid dedicated his minutes of public intervention to criticizing the agreement and to Minister Morant, who did not know what face to put on, and to Pedro Sánchez. The minister replied that why would she sign a text in which she did not believe. The rectors looked at each other in disbelief. Nobody applauded anyone’s speech, as is protocolally done in these cases.
The reality is that the Spanish university has many problems and part of them are caused by a lack of funds. Last week, Carne Cruda’s colleagues carried out an x-ray of how things are on the campuses. It is informative, agile as Javier’s program is and with many voices.
This week we talked about…
- From digital natives to ChatGPT. AI has also burst into education. There is practically no young person who does not use some of the different artificial intelligences in matters related to school or institute, a situation that represents a notable challenge for teachers. And not only because they are going to copy or present works prepared by this tool, explains an expert. As happened with digital natives – a term that was stopped being used because it is considered erroneous – the risk is in assuming that because AI is a natural utility for young people, they will know how to relate to them. Neither the digital natives knew more about technology or the Internet nor do the current generations know how AI breathes.
- A teacher pressures his students to say in an exam that climate change does not exist. It is reported by at least four families, who tell the same story: the teacher, who denies the facts, asked the Primary school children to say that climate change is manipulation. When it happened, DANA in Valencia also said that it had been orchestrated by politicians and spread the hoax that they had opened dam floodgates to kill people. The center has not done anything for the moment.
To upload grade
- A teenager commits suicide after being bullied at school. It happened last October in Asturias, according to account The Country. Ainara was 16 years old, but she had been harassed for two years. There was even a court ruling against one of her harassers, who was the young woman’s ex-partner. The case brings it all together: bullying, insufficient protection by the administration for victims, the toxic effect of social networks and scarce public mental health resources.
- Madrid pays 38 million euros annually to schools that segregate by sex. And it does so bordering on illegality, because the new law prohibits financing this type of center with public funds. But in Madrid there are still 11, seven of them related to Opus Dei, who benefit from Ayuso’s different maneuvers to favor the charter school. Here are the details.
With this I say goodbye for today.
Thank you for reading us and supporting elDiario.es.
Have a good week.
Education is everything and, in these times of inequality, the best tool for social justice. We tell you every Tuesday from the Government’s national policies to the small stories from the last corner of the country, with special attention to the public as a guarantor of equal opportunities.
#justice #remains
