Yesterday we told you in this space that “it would be good for the Minister of the Interior to limit herself to apologizing and saying that it will not happen again”. And in the afternoon, in Parliament, Núria Parlon said: "I do want to apologize, and apologize to the educational union, in this case the CGT, for this feeling of distrust and insecurity that this has generated in relation to your assembly work and in relation to your organization and protest rights".Apologizing is an effective move because it lowers the tone of public controversy and reduces the discomfort of the offended party who is asking for explanations. An apology from a politician always makes for a bigger headline. And everyone understands that those responsible admit a mistake and, furthermore, everyone can imagine that something like this will not happen again. And the truth is that the way political communication is done nowadays, it is quite infrequent: have you ever heard Trump or Ayuso apologize?Therefore, the councilor's apology is correct, but in politics everything has a meaning. Firstly, the Government is in full negotiation with the teachers' unions (today specifically, they are sitting at the negotiation table), and these days, the Government is closing the budget agreement with Esquerra. Parlon had very powerful incentives to lower her head and tone.And now let's get to the facts: some Mossos agents infiltrated in a teachers' assembly and were discovered. The Director General of the Mossos, Josep Lluís Trapero, also acknowledges the mistake and even speaks of naivety.Josep Lluís Trapero: "But in the same way that I acknowledge the error or lack of opportunity, I do not acknowledge bad faith or an antidemocratic attitude in that operation. I emphasize again: I acknowledge the error in the lack of opportunity. And, if you wish, even the naivety of the decision".The minister and director spoke of a “poorly planned operational maneuver”. In other words, there was no political order, but rather a usual modus operandi (the minister spoke of “inertias”) that was poorly resolved. And this morning, on TV3, she said that the police had the right to use an “undercover agent”, a figure recognized by law, that the method used the other day is not the appropriate one, that there are “more appropriate police legal figures when you have a risk”.Therefore, what the political leadership of the Mossos says is that the infiltration was a mistake by the uniformed officers (not the politicians), who acted routinely, without anyone with sufficient rank assessing whether or not it was necessary to spy on an assembly from which a mobilization would emerge that is often announced in the media. It must be said: whether it is a mistake by the police officers who execute or by the politicians who rule, the ultimate responsible for anything the police do are the politicians. And, obviously, the Mossos will continue to infiltrate, as all police forces in the world do. Meanwhile, today it's the teachers' strike in Girona and Central Catalonia. And the minister is meeting with teacher unions today. May it go well, because this will be good for everyone.Good morning.

The controversy over the infiltration of two agents of the Mossos d'Esquadra into a teachers' assembly has now reached the judicial sphere. The first complaint filed points to the Minister of the Interior, Núria Parlon; the Director General of the Mossos, Josep Lluís Trapero, and the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, for alleged crimes against the exercise of fundamental rights and public liberties. It was filed this Tuesday in the Barcelona courts by the Association of Lawyers of Osona in Defense of Human Rights.

Today is the first of the 17 days of strikes that teachers have called. Their stoppage not only impacts students and families who are left without classes: at a quarter past seven in the morning, the striking teachers have cut off traffic in places like Mataró, Manresa, Vic, and especially, at the entrances to Barcelona, very particularly on the Ronda de Dalt, and then in the city center. Among teachers there is the conviction that it is now or never, that they have been holding up the educational system for a long time, that they do not have reinforcements in classrooms, that they are increasingly complex, and that salaries are low considering the responsibility they have, and that while the salaries of the Mossos have been reviewed, those of teachers have not.Regarding this, today we publish this interview with the spokesperson for USTEC, Iolanda Segura, with a very clear headline: “With 400 euros per month we could talk about raising the protest”. Pay attention, however, to a couple of details. First, the nuance. The spokesperson says: “If it is scheduled that 200 euros are already this first year and then the rest in two or three more years, we could finish negotiating and see what the collective tells us. But what is non-negotiable is 200 euros in four years, which everyone knows perfectly well that it neither places us at the forefront of salaries in the rest of the communities nor reverses the salary loss”. And the other detail is that it's not all about salaries. What else could provoke the protest? The union leader says: “Regarding staff numbers, the agreement includes a series of measures that we negotiated ourselves, such as reducing ratios and providing resources for educational centers and for inclusive education. We are talking about figures that are both labor and teaching, special education educators, integration specialists, TEEI (specialist technician in early childhood education) and psychopedagogues”. It is important to note, therefore, that teachers are demanding improvements that go beyond economic ones. I say this because the polarization, for and against teachers, without nuances, which mixes things like having two months of vacation, has reached the dozens of comments the news has received.I believe it is fundamental that we look further, and of course, do so without starting from likes or dislikes. It may be annoying that they block traffic or demand more money, but teachers are focusing on a core problem, that of education. A problem means what is taught, how it is taught, and what educational and future job value for students the content taught in Catalan schools has. If we talk about education, for a long time now no one here is happy: the Government wants to reverse the results of the PISA report, we have concluded that the teaching career is neither sufficiently demanding nor sufficiently recognized, the postal district weighs heavily on the students' school reality, the job market cannot find well-prepared people... And it's not new, it's been a long time that with all kinds of governments, teaching has been fertile ground for the dissatisfaction of its protagonists. And thus, as a society, we cannot continue. And the Government, even less so. What a mistake it was to bring the spotlights and cameras to the signing of an agreement with unions that were not the majority ones, as if to say that everything is fine, madam baroness. Well, no, it is not, and we will hear about it during 17 days of strike, three of which are general education strikes, between now and the end of the school year.Good morning.

Two agents of the Mossos d’Esquadra infiltrated a teachers' assembly to spy on how they were preparing for future strikes in the sector. That saying that you last less than a lollipop at the door of a school will have to be changed to “you last less than a cop at a teachers' assembly”. They were discovered immediately.

The conflict between the education sector and the Government escalates one more degree and shakes parliamentary politics. With the new wave of mobilizations underway, and amidst the controversy over the pilot test to introduce plainclothes police officers in schools and institutespilot test to introduce plainclothes police officers in schools and institutes, the unions denounced this Thursday the infiltration of two Mossos agents into an assembly of teachers who were preparing the next strike days. The indignation of the sector has been joined by calls for explanations from the opposition, and ERC, the Comuns, and the CUP have already called for the dismissal of the police chief, Josep Lluís Trapero. For the moment, the police force defends that it acts "always in accordance with current legislation" and the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, has defended its "professionalism".

Today is the first day of the teachers' strikes with which the school year will end badly. There are conversations between the Government and the teachers' unions, but publicly we are still in the phase of a tug-of-war between the two positions and, therefore, the end of the conflict is not in sight. The counselor went to TV3 this morning, she put on a brave face (as President Illa did in the last control session) and, apparently, we are in a “let's see who lasts longer”. And, despite everything, the Government is seeing firsthand the bitter reality of all the governments that have preceded it: Catalonia is very poorly financed and has no more room for maneuver.The future hangs from the school, which is almost like saying that everything hangs from it, including that of the Catalan language. In recent times, worried voices are heard about the ease with which Catalan-speaking children from Catalan-speaking families play, sing, and communicate in Spanish, or switch languages very easily, and there are people who suggest whether it would be better to separate students by language, so that teaching in Catalan is as little interfered with as possible. On this, I recommend the article signed today by political scientist Jordi Muñoz, which, under the title “Linguistic segregation?”, provides some data: Catalan is not losing speakers, it continues to gain new ones, but it lives in contact with a language, Spanish, which is gaining even more, and all the new Catalan speakers, of which there are some, do not compensate for the growth of the Spanish-speaking population. But Muñoz also says that “reducing contact between linguistic communities would further limit the incorporation of new speakers”. And he concludes by adding a surprising piece of data: “If only a third of Catalan speakers stopped switching languages when interacting with Spanish speakers, this would have the same impact on the social use of the language as a 10 percentage point increase in the demographic weight of Catalan speakers”. So, if only one third of Catalans kept speaking Catalan, this would have the effect of 10% more Catalan speakers. It would be good for Professor Muñoz to develop the idea, but it has to do with an empirical evidence that Carme Junyent already spoke about, who in an interview with Vilaweb four years ago said the following: “The best thing Catalan has now, and which is the great hope, is that more than half of those who speak it do not have it as their first language. This is a gift that is difficult to achieve.” And she added: “Therefore, we should know how to value the fact that so many people have made the effort to learn Catalan, with all the dimension it has. But this means that we need a little patience, that we must be open to the possibility that they do not speak well while they speak. If people speak and we give them the opportunity to do so because we don't change languages, they will end up speaking well.”  We have said here many times that if Catalan is not legally essential to earn a living, it has a harder time being hegemonic. And that it is unfair to have to demand individual attitudes to make efforts that Spanish speakers do not have to make. But no one said that life was fair, much less perfect. It's no use demanding everything without doing anything. Or not doing much. And this, as Carme Junyent said: “Basically, it means always speaking in Catalan. Speaking in Catalan by default and if there are problems, we will solve them.”Good morning.

The education sector launches a new cycle of mobilizations in defense of public education. On the eve of Thursday's strike day in early childhood education (0-3) –the first of seventeen called for next month across all educational stages–, teachers have staged various traffic disruptions, protests, and actions in schools since early this morning.

In a context of tension between the Department of Education and union forces over the signed agreement to improve teachers' conditions and classroom situations, this week the Catalan Government sent an email to the families of the schools explaining the details of the agreement it reached with the CCOO and UGT unions, but which USTEC, the majority union, rejected. This action has made even more evident the discontent of the unions that had not viewed the Catalan Government's final proposal regarding teachers' conditions favorably. In this regard, USTEC has denounced what they consider "misuse of family contacts by the Catalan Government" and assures that sending the newsletter to parents is "making propaganda" for the agreement signed with CCOO and UGT.

Throughout my schooling, I was one of the few children of immigrants in the classroom. My parents came from Morocco, and I was born and raised in Barcelona. Like so many Catalans, I grew up watching and enjoying Club Super3, where they aired shows like... Dragon Ball and DoraemonThanks to this audiovisual content, many of us children who didn't come from Catalan-speaking families became familiar with Catalan, which is now part of our identity. Growing up as children of immigrants isn't easy. You're born into a very complicated economic and social reality, sometimes compounded by episodes of discrimination and racism. Like many young people who have shared the same baggage, we became aware of the importance of education as a way to progress socially and aspire to a better life. Now, little by little, the result of these individual efforts is allowing many of us to become teachers, doctors, writers, and engineers. Now that I work as a secondary school teacher, I find that classrooms are more culturally diverse than in my day, but I'm still one of the few children of immigrants who are teachers. According to data from the Statistical Institute of Catalonia, 225,000 students in the education system are foreign-born. This figure doesn't include all Catalan students with immigrant roots. Students with a migratory background are the group that presentsMore school failure in CataloniaThis phenomenon refers to students who do not obtain their ESO (Compulsory Secondary Education) diploma. Andreu Domingo and Jordi Bayona are two researchers who have analyzed this phenomenon. In their research, they differentiate between foreign students born outside Catalonia and Catalan students with an immigrant parent. Regarding foreign students, their poor results are explained by their late entry into the education system, which makes it difficult for them to adapt. Both researchers focus on understanding why Catalan students with foreign roots obtain worse academic results. The socioeconomic problems they face are one of the reasons. Another point to highlight is the direct correlation between a higher concentration of students of foreign origin in certain schools and a high rate of academic failure. This leads to what the authors call the "neighborhood effect," in which the negative circumstances of the student's environment influence their academic performance and future prospects. Ultimately, they end up reproducing the social conditions and inequalities of their parents, and their situation of poverty and social stagnation becomes chronic, with little room for improvement.

The fourth day of negotiations between the government and teachers' unions ended without an agreement, but with a significant convergence of positions. After hours of meetings, the unions left on Friday with a new salary proposal from the Department of Education, although they still consider it insufficient. As the department explained, teachers have been offered a 25% increase in their specific supplement over four years, meaning that by 2030, teachers will earn approximately €2,500 more per year than they currently do. The offer is €1,000 higher than the previous proposal. the first proposal that Educació put on the table Last week, and in practical terms, this would mean that teachers would receive approximately 180 euros more gross per month. However, USTEC, the largest teachers' union, has already stated that it does not welcome the offer. "Although we appreciate the effort to present us with an improved proposal, it is still insufficient because it in no way resolves the salary injustice that teachers in Catalonia have suffered for many years," warned USTEC spokesperson Iolanda Segura. Similarly, UGT spokesperson Lorena Martínez stated that they will not accept "any proposal that is not formal and in writing, that does not involve a budgetary commitment from the administration, and that does not genuinely address the outstanding demands of the teaching staff." Despite the salary obstacle, both unions and the Catalan Ministry of Education have acknowledged that negotiations have progressed. In fact, the USTEC spokesperson has stated that "generally speaking" a consensus has been reached on the points of the proposal related to inclusive education, reducing bureaucratic burdens, and increasing democracy in schools. However, Segura cautions that this convergence of positions still needs to be "specifically implemented."

Teachers are on strike with the astonishing support of the politicians who have been governing Catalan education in recent years. Esther Niubó asserted that this strike "requires the full support of the Catalan government." Teachers' discontent is real, and it's good that it's being acknowledged. But is it understood that the problem cannot be solved by propping up the system with band-aids while simultaneously asking schools to resolve all the issues that social change is bringing to the forefront? These issues affect the relationship between families and schools, the meaning and purpose of knowledge, the status of authority, and ultimately, the role of schools in society.

After the chaos caused by the error that forced the Ministry of Education to repeat more than 50,000 teaching awards in the month of July, schools and institutes face the school year with an uncertainty that has been present for years: which teachers will be added to their teaching staff. One of the most unpredictable pieces of this puzzle is the number of teachers who, once the final appointments for the school year have been made (on June 11, using data from vacancies as of the end of May), are leaving their jobs. A situation that, according to data provided by the department to ARA, 1,319 teachers have experienced this summer, either due to retirement, because they have changed jobs, or because they have moved to other regions—many to the Valencian Country—leaving their positions empty at a time when the mechanism for filling them is halted during the summer holidays.

The Department of Education has reacted swiftly to the chaos it itself generated with the monumental error in allocating places for the next academic year. An error that has forced the process to start all over again: the rectification has been made in record time. Very well. But this is the only good news in the mess we've witnessed these past few days.

The chaos generated by the incidents in the allocation of teaching positions for the next school year has claimed its first victim in the Department of Education. Minister Esther Niubó, who appeared before Parliament on Tuesday to explain the case, announced the dismissal of the department's Deputy Director General of Staff, Provisions, and Payroll, Enric Trens. She accused him of "errors" in the allocation process. This forced the cancellation of the distribution of 57,000 jobs and affected 2,898 teachers."We are facing a serious and unacceptable act that affects the credibility of the Catalan education system," she lamented.

Less than two months before the start of the school year, the Department of Education has halted the allocation of teaching and professor positions for the next academic year, which was due to close this week, and has admitted that it will have to start the entire process from scratch. According to the report, The Vanguard As ARA has been able to confirm, the reason behind this decision is that there has been a "detection of unjustified incidents" that have led to a pool of positions that were supposed to be awarded to civil servants being assigned to temporary staff. All of this requires a redo of the entire allocation process, which cannot be completed until at least next week. This year, there were at least 50,000 positions at stake.

Denmark is one of the countries that, year after year, leads the rankings in student competency, with an education system that is characterized by being completely free from primary school to university, and which differs significantly from the teaching system in Catalonia. Carolina Diarte (46 years old, born in Castellar del Vallès), knows this well. She has lived in the Scandinavian country for 18 years, where she has worked as a secondary school teacher for 15 years. She didn't expect to end up teaching in a high school in Denmark, but after meeting her Danish partner in Japan, they decided to live together in Copenhagen. Carolina had studied translation and interpreting in Barcelona, ​​​​which helped her find work as a teacher.

The opportunity to spend a few years in the land of the pharaohs doesn't come along often, so when it presented itself in 2022 to Alba Ruiz, a 34-year-old teacher from Mataró, and her husband, with whom they had just had a child, they decided to take advantage of it. He had been offered the option of temporarily moving to Egypt for work, and she requested a leave of absence from the school where she had been working for eight years, San José in her hometown, so she could travel. "It was now or never," she explains.

"Hello teacher, my son is always hungry at 10:30 and recess is at 11:00. Could you please bring forward the time for recess?" "I would appreciate it if you did not use red pens to mark my son's exams. Red is a very aggressive colour and makes him anxious. Could you use a pastel pink or aqua green?" With these examples, primary school teacher Gerard Alarcón, who has more than a million followers on social media, gave a parody on his Instagram account, with cases that were not real, of the requests that families currently make to the teaching staff.

When the Department of Education and Vocational Training launched the Sensei Program –temporary initial teaching residency program The management team and coordinators of the Migdia School in Girona thought that the program would be an opportunity for the entire educational community. They proposed it to the teaching staff and everyone agreed. "We are now in the second year of this pilot plan and we are delighted," says the current director, Marta Massó, who was then head of studies. The program is a two-year pilot test, which began in 2023-24 and will end this year, and which combines half a day of teaching and half a day of training with the aim of implementing a kind of MIR (similar to that of doctors) but aimed at teachers and professors in the future.

Under 48 hours before a new day of industrial action in state schools, head teachers from 300 schools have signed a letter addressed to Catalan Education minister Josep Gonzàlez-Cambray, to which ARA has had access, in which they warn that the situation in schools is "unsustainable": "There is a real risk that the whole public education system will collapse and the functioning of state schools with minimum quality standards will no longer be guaranteed". The statement asks the minister for "measures not words" after "repeated" demands made by schools to the Department.