The contagions and quarantines of teachers, which according to CC OO reach up to 8.7%, mark the first day of the face-to-face return to the classrooms in institutes and colleges of the Community
The first day of going back to school after the Christmas holidays started this Monday marked by the loss of teachers, which the centers have had to supply with imagination and voluntary guards and which has forced in some cases “to join two classes” in one , and look for spaces to do so, whether they be courtyards or multipurpose rooms, according to the president of the Association of Directors of Infant and Primary Schools, Olga Catasús, who explains that the problem is very uneven between the different educational centers.
The Workers’ Commissions union numbers 11.2% of teachers who are absent at the beginning of classes in person at all educational levels, as agreed by the Ministries of Health and Education and the autonomous communities. Of this percentage, the union estimates that 8.7% are affected by Covid and 2.5% have not been able to go to their positions for other reasons. This is an approximate figure calculated through consultations with different institutes and colleges, since the Ministry of Education has not yet provided the exact data. For its part, the Sterm union estimates that between 700 and 1,000 teachers have not been able to attend the classrooms.
The criterion of the Ministry of Education has been to prioritize the replacement of withdrawals in centers with more than 10% of teachers affected, which leaves many centers without reinforcements. The president of the Association of Directors of Public Secondary Education Centers (Ades), Isabel Saturno, has lamented the delay in the awarding of withdrawals. “In my center, 8 out of 120 teachers have been absent, who are supplemented by guards from their colleagues,” he points out in reference to the institute he directs, the Sanje de Alcantarilla. “Some directors tell us that between 8 and 10 teachers are also missing in their centers,” he explains. In other institutes, the situation has been more complicated, as in the Antonio Hellín, in Mazarrón, where 15 teachers out of a staff of 60 are on leave.
“In principle the act of awarding places was going to be held this Tuesday,” says Olga Catasús, “but they have suspended it and Education has told us that they will be covered by phone. «It seems that some school has received an email saying that they are going to cover the withdrawals, but of the centers with which I have contact, most have not received any communication yet. The situation leaves many schools in a state of “uncertainty”, which now do not know when the losses will be covered and who remain awaiting news from the Ministry.
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