The great obligations of inclusive school

While these days we talk about educational strikes, lack of resources and the needs of schools, there is a group that hardly appears in the headlines: the support staff. We are the professionals who accompany children and young people with disabilities, developmental disorders or autonomy difficulties so that they can participate on equal terms in the daily life of schools: in classrooms, playgrounds and dining halls. However, little is said about our working conditions, our training, or the importance of our work for inclusion to be a reality and not just a declaration of intent.

A mistaken image of our group persists, as if it were an unskilled job. The reality is different: we work every day with students who require knowledge, sensitivity, and coordination with other professionals. Many of us have specialized training: we are social educators or integrators, early childhood educators, healthcare assistants… Despite all this, we continue to be classified occupationally as leisure monitors, a category that reflects neither the functions nor the responsibility we assume.

To this lack of recognition is added a great job instability. Most of us work with permanent-discontinuous contracts, which involve being unemployed every summer. When the school year ends, we don't know which school we will work in next, how many hours we will be assigned, or what salary we will receive. We can go from a relatively stable workday to an assignment of a few hours per week, which makes it extremely difficult to maintain a decent livelihood. Furthermore, since our service is outsourced, we depend on private companies that obtain management through public tenders. Over the years, many of us have gone through several different companies without ceasing to perform exactly the same functions. This situation generates permanent uncertainty and hinders the creation of stable teams.

There is, still, a less visible part: attending to these students is not just about being by their side for a few hours. It requires preparing adapted materials, coordinating with tutors, counselors, families, and specialists, and planning interventions. These tasks are rarely given recognized time within the workday, and many of us dedicate hours of our personal time to them. We do it out of commitment and vocation, but the quality of inclusion should not depend on the goodwill of those who work in it.

We are deeply concerned about the situation of the students. Every day we see children and young people with learning difficulties or signs of neurodevelopmental disorders who, due to lack of diagnosis or administrative criteria, do not have access to sufficient hours of support. They attend class, try to follow explanations that they often do not understand, and accumulate frustration. Teachers make an enormous effort, but one person cannot simultaneously attend to several students with difficulties and the whole class. And when support is lacking, those who suffer the most are the most vulnerable.

Our demand does not question the role of educators or other specialists; on the contrary, we recognize their work and know that they also suffer from the lack of resources. We do not want to replace anyone or be a more economical alternative, but rather to be part of solid, coordinated, and stable teams.

We do not claim privileges. We claim professional recognition, job stability, a category in accordance with our functions, time to coordinate and prepare our work, continuity in the centers, and sufficient resources. We demand that it no longer be considered normal to be unemployed every summer, to not know our destination and schedule every September, or to do part of the work outside of working hours.

Because inclusion is not built only with laws, speeches, or good intentions, but every day in the classrooms, thanks to the joint effort of teachers, special education educators, counselors, families, and support professionals.

And among them, we are also the assistants. Without us, educational inclusion would be much more difficult to achieve.