Education in Catalonia hits rock bottom

Regardless of how we got here, a country that begins the school year with a teachers' strike is a country that has hit rock bottom. Especially if it is a country like Catalonia, where the pedagogical tradition of excellence has been a hallmark of its identity.

Probably, many parents will take their children to class tomorrow, because they have had enough. And because if we weigh it on a scale, the right to education of children and young people outweighs the right of teachers to strike. Denying the first day of excitement at school is, perhaps, an introduction to the disappointments that will come with adult life, but it is a failure for everyone.

The mess of the PISA tests and these two wasted months of summer holidays have shown that there is a problem with the functioning of the Department of Education. All ministers have had problems with the unions, but now we have moved from the unrest of the Cambray era to that of the Niubó era, as if they did not master the teaching civil service and did not understand the effects of the decisions they make, such as agreeing to a reduction in the power of school principals with minority unions in the sector. And in two years the problems have grown. The effort to combat segregation has often ended up becoming a bureaucratic distribution of problems between schools, instead of a way to find a solution with a bit of soul. Using a school analogy, it would be as if the department did not understand the statement of the problem in front of it and did not know whether to multiply or divide to solve it.

Furthermore, education in Catalonia continues to be in the Spanish political and judicial crosshairs. Failing in the exercise of our powers always hurts, but if it involves schools, even more so.