The number of students with educational support needs has grown from 28,299 in the 2019/2020 academic year to 35,910 in the 2023/2024 academic year, according to data from the Department of Education. An increase that reflects, without a doubt, the increasingly complex reality that exists in public schools and institutes of Catalonia.
“In a class of 25 or 30 students there is a lot of diversity and the teacher is alone and does not arrive. There is a lot of frustration, especially when he has to take on health tasks that do not correspond to him,” he explains. Dani Turonprofessor and coordinator of the inclusive education working group of the USTEC union. Beyond the lack of security guards and resources for inclusive education, entities and families demand the incorporation of more nurses and health professionals in Catalan public centers.
In October 2017, the Generalitat approved the inclusive school decreewhich established that all students with special educational needs (SEN) had to attend regular schools during the compulsory stage, except in cases where families requested a special education center for severe disabilities.
The increase in the budget foreseen in actions of the decree from the 2017/2018 academic year to 2020/2021 should be 142 million. And although the set figure was not reached – 117.5 million were invested – the Department of Education assured that the real increase in spending on inclusive education in four years, beyond the decree, had been 264 million. This is how he remembers Public the new general director of Inclusive Education, Susana Tarapiellawhich makes a “positive” assessment of the deployment of regulations and resources, although it admits that there is still much to do.
If we analyze the annual investment in inclusive education since then, Tarapiella affirms that there has been a “progressive increase”: while in the 2017/2018 academic year 359.7 million were allocated, in the 2023/2024 academic year the figure rose to 590.5 million. These resources, in principle, have been used to hire monitors and educational care personnel. So, if the budget has been growing, in parallel with the increase in students with needs, Why does discomfort persist between teachers and families?
The answer is simple: the inclusive school “is everyone’s school”and there is still a lack of resources to guarantee “good attention” to each of the students, says Turón. For its part, Victor Saurateacher, journalist and member of the Citizen Platform for an Inclusive School, argues that “the increase in resources is little noticeable because the complexity of the students has increased a lot.” They both agree that only Reducing classroom ratios would greatly improve attention.
The lack of monitors is just the “tip of the iceberg”
One of the complaints that has resonated most strongly in recent times is the lack of school monitors. This is a professional profile that ensures the autonomy of students with SEN – especially with regard to mobility, hygiene or nutrition – and to facilitate their participation with the rest of their classmates in learning situations. These guards are not part of Educació, but rather They are subcontracted through a private company and, therefore, the hours distributed depend on the budget invested.
According to Tarapiella, “the Territorial Services are in charge of distributing weekly hours in each of the centers.” These hours, he continues, “are based on the assessment made by the EAP [Equipo de Asesoramiento y Orientación Psicopedagógica] of the need for complementary support in the educational context for students with SEN.” In response to the complaints of the affected families, the general director clarifies that “Support monitoring is a resource of the center, not of the student”and that centers must be able to serve students without it, which is only “additional support that adds to the rest of the resources” available.
Turón explains that “every year there is a stir with the monitors”, but that this is only “the tip of the iceberg”, because the centers “should have many other resources, such as special education or nursing“In this sense, he regrets that there are students who suffer from complex chronic diseases who do not receive adequate care and asserts that teachers “are not responsible for health functions because they are not specialists.”
Víctor Saura agrees with this reasoning, who assures that “what creates the most discomfort is everything related to the health care of students during school hours.” Turón says that monitors should not be trained to carry out certain care and that families, “if they believe that there are not enough resources in the ordinary public school, they will end up taking their children to the private one, which is not available to everyone, or to a special school.
In fact, according to data provided to Public According to the Department, there has been an increase in the enrollment of children with SEN in special education centers: it has gone from 11,005 students in the 2021/2022 academic year to 11,464 in 2022/2023, reaching 12,286 in 2023/2024. Tarapiella attributes this increase to “several factors”, among which he highlights that “special education centers often offer resources adapted to the reality of each child and young person, allowing them to develop in an environment that best suits their needs.” The general director has not commented on the demand for school nurses.
Measures to promote inclusive school
As a measure to alleviate the discomfort of the families, Saura demands the opening of the Family Care Unit and Support for Educational Inclusionwhich was launched last February. He says it is a place where “you can talk to a direct interlocutor,” who can act as an intermediary between parents and the administration.
Tarapiella reveals that until now They have attended more than 610 cases“most of which are related to the implementation of measures and supports in the classroom, regulations or action protocols, among others.” Likewise, remember the words of the Minister of Education, Esther Niubóin a press conference in September, where he confirmed the consolidation of the Unit as an “essential resource for specialized support” in 2024/2025.
In this sense, Tarapiella affirms that we must continue working, taking as reference the proposals made by the Taula de Participació per a Sistema Educatiu Inclusiu (TAPSEI). Among other strategic lines that have been drawn up, the Generalitat intends to promote measures and “universal support”, such as through the “inclusive education facilitators”; increase the number of centers that have “intensive resources” or consolidate and expand coordination with other departments such as Health and Social Rights.
Regarding Turón’s prospects with the new Government, he affirms that “they are still starting engines” and that we will have to see how the new Department “breathes.” “Before the elections, Illa said that education should have better financing. There are millions of euros that have not been invested for many years“, he adds. Saura, for his part, says that Minister Niubó, when she was in the opposition, promoted a Study Commission on Inclusion in the Parliament and that, for the moment, he trusts in her “sensitivity” with the matter.
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