After the first day of an indefinite teachers’ walkout in Valencia on Monday, educators in Catalonia have called their own stoppage this Tuesday. Here’s what parents across both regions need to know about the teachers’ strikes.
A total of 78,000 teachers working in preschool, primary, secondary, high school, and vocational training were called to an indefinite strike in Valencia on Monday May 11th, while this Tuesday May 12th, teachers across Catalonia have also joined in.
The strike in Valencia comes months of futile negotiations between the government and the workers’ unions. While the walkout in Catalonia was called by USTEC-STEs and CGT Ensenyament, among other trade union organisations in the Catalan education system after months of conflict between teachers and the Department of Education.
According to unions, the number of teachers and other educators who participated in the first strike day in Valencia was between 80 to 90 percent, while the Regional Ministry of Education put the figure at slightly over half (50.3 percent).
Teachers gathered to demonstrate in Valencia, Alicante, Elche, and Castellón with 20,000 attendees in the regional capital, according to data from the local government.
In Alicante, national police estimated some 12,000 people participated, while in Castellón just over 5,000 people joined the protest, and in Elche the number was around 2,800.
In Catalonia, this is the third stoppage by teachers in the region this year, following the huge mobilisations on February 11th and March 20th.
This third protest comes just two months after the Catalan government and the CCOO and UGT workers’ unions signed a new agreement – the ‘Country Agreement for Education’.
The two largest teachers’ unions, Ustec and Aspepc, however, distanced themselves from the agreement, saying it was “absolutely insufficient,” and vowed to continue fighting.
Teachers in Valencia are demanding salary increases, reduced student-teacher ratios, less bureaucracy, respect for the Valencian language in education, and a plan for air conditioning in schools.
Educational workers in the region currently have between 23 and 25 students, including children with special needs.
“The ideal ratio would be 18 students per class, or the possibility of co-teaching, that is, having two teachers in the classroom,” the unions state.
They are also demanding more specialists in therapeutic pedagogy, speech and language therapy, and educational guidance, since students with special needs “should receive five hours of support per week, but often only get one to three, and even then, it has to be shared”.
In Catalonia, educators and teachers in the region are complaining about working conditions and organisation of the education system. They are demanding improvements to teachers’ working conditions, a review of certain organisational decisions, and progress on issues related to staffing, workload, and labour negotiations.
The walkout in Catalonia this Tuesday will include two marches starting from Plaza España and El Clot, which will meet in Plaza Urquinaona, where the demonstration will begin at noon.
This will be followed by two more on May 27th and June 5th. Both will affect all of Catalonia.
The minimum services decreed by the Generalitat of Catalonia are:
- One person from the management team for each centre.
- For early childhood, primary and secondary education: one teacher for every 3 units or classrooms.
- For special education (ages 3 to 16): 50 percent of the staff at centres.
- For nurseries: 33 percent of staff.
- For the educational complex in Tarragona: 50 percent of the dining room and kitchen staff, one maintenance person per shift, surveillance and night shift staff.
- 50 percent of the dining room monitoring staff, the kitchen service, the reception service, the extracurricular services and special needs.
In Valencia this Tuesday sit-ins are planned at various education centres, while on Wednesday, May 13th, demonstrations are scheduled for noon outside the Palau de la Generalitat and the regional government delegations, such as the Casa de las Brujas in Alicante and the Casa de los Caracoles in Castellón.
On Thursday May 14th, protests will concentrate outside the Ministry of Education and the provincial Territorial Directorates. Then on Friday, May 15th, a “large unitary demonstration” is planned in Valencia city starting from Plaza de San Agustín at noon.
The regional Minister of Education in Valencia, Carmen Ortí, told regional television channel À Punt that she is maintaining open lines of communication with the unions and that the government’s intention is to reach agreements.
According to her, the next meeting with the unions was scheduled for June 9th but she wants to reconvene “as soon as possible”.
If the strikes continues, it could affect just over half a million students in Valencia alone.
