Education as a symptom of the country's crisis

We are not getting out of the complicated loop of the educational crisis. After the announcement of the super-strike, which for the moment has only served to confirm the clash between the Government and the majority union, USTEC, two more pieces of news highlight the complicated panorama with education as a visible symptom of the country's crisis.

The two new pieces of news are the poor results, once again, of the pedagogical aptitude tests (PAP) that students aspiring to be teachers must take, and the large gap between the training offer and the labor demand in the industrial sector, which prevents covering about 15,000 jobs. These are two realities that once again place us before a mirror that reflects an image we do not like.

To get out of the multi-crisis and environmental pessimism, it is essential to address the problems from the base, that is, from the educational field in a broad sense. And, for the moment, we are not doing it well.

A good starting point would be to manage to train good teachers, attract the best students to the profession, and raise the bar for those who hold the future of boys and girls in their hands. The PAPs are too simple tests and, even so, almost half of those who take them do not pass. We are not doing well. The problem, therefore, stems from the very beginning. How do we break this dynamic? It takes courage and determination to do things differently. It's been 10 years of PAPs and they haven't led to progress. It's time for a change: more demanding tests. Perhaps initially there will be fewer candidates, but they will be more talented and hopefully more vocational. Afterwards, of course, those who arrive well-trained and with ambition and vocation will have to be assigned to the centers with the most difficulties and receive better salaries and maximum institutional support. All this would represent a radical change.

Regarding vocational training for the industrial sector, we are also stagnating. How can it be that, out of the 26,000 places that industrial companies require each year in Catalonia, only 11,000 are filled? Why are more professionals not being trained? It's hard to believe it's due to a lack of effort culture among young people. Again, here there is rather a problem of prestige of certain jobs and a mismatch between educational supply and business demand. Who does not share this double challenge?

On the other hand, the message young people receive is that pessimism reigns in the teaching profession and that it is very difficult. Is it really that difficult? What would healthcare workers, social assistants, self-employed individuals, or workers in so many precarious professions say? And then there is a message that does not reach young people: the existence of technical/technological professions in the industrial world that require specific training which, once acquired, guarantees a job.

We lack the collective and unified ambition and will to overcome this educational deadlock. It cannot be that we continue to blame each other while schools and institutes only devolve and while industry has to go abroad to find workers.