Island hires former head of subsidized and private schools as advisor

BarcelonaOne month after resigning as director general of Concerted and Private Centers for personal reasons, Xavier Güell has been hired as an advisor to President Salvador Illa. As stated in this Wednesday's Official Gazette of the Generalitat (DOGC), Güell has been appointed "advisor to the president on messaging," a position attached to the Directorate General of Strategy, Analysis and Prospecting, which falls under the Department of the Presidency.

According to the resolution, the member of Units per Avançar will have the functions of providing support and advice on the president's discourse and image; carrying out necessary actions to "align the president's narrative with government action" or preparing reports on events, among others.

Güell’s resignation – who will now report to the Department of the Presidency – as director general of Concerted and Private Centers came to light exactly one month ago, on March 30th. The resignation became effective only three weeks after the Government agreed to 390 million euros to address "the historical underfunding" of concert schools.

Changes in concert agreements

Beyond the million-dollar agreement to, among other things, increase the teaching staff of subsidized schools, the director general at the time was also responsible for executing the withdrawal of subsidies to schools that segregate by sex, which was initiated by the ERC government. It was precisely because of some of the new criteria for renewing subsidies that Güell had to face complaints from a part of the subsidized sector.

Specifically, subsidized schools and institutes viewed with surprise and resignation the change in rules regarding the possibility of recovering groups if they were refilled with students: Until now, when a subsidized center did not have enough students to fill a class in I3, it was not granted the subsidy, but it was allowed to try to fill the group again with the change of stage, when entering primary school. Now, however, Education will not allow this second opportunity in a generalized way: if a class is not filled in a generation, the school will remain without a subsidy for that class throughout infant and primary education.

At that time, the Department of Education justified that the change responded to a situation of demographic decline in which it is unlikely that if a class is closed in I3, there will be enough students in the following years to reopen the class with that generation.