The day has arrived. After 72 hours of voting, teachers revealed this midday that they reject the preliminary agreement of the majority unions and Education. They did so in a consultation in which more than 60,000 teachers participated (approximately 60% of the teachers and professors in the public education system). Of these, 65.1% rejected the agreement and, therefore, have committed to continuing to mobilize. In contrast, those who viewed the preliminary agreement favorably remained at 34.9%.

The master's student's mother occasionally forces him to glance at the newspaper, especially if it carries news about his future profession. “Here, read this!”, she tells him this morning. And she hands him her mobile phone with the ARA news. She waits behind him, because if she sent it to him on WhatsApp, she knows he wouldn't look at it. The text says that teachers “have displayed banners and chanted slogans against the pre-agreement, which they describe as a patch because, they assure, it focuses mainly on pay aspects but does not address the problems affecting the daily life of educational centers”.

After the preliminary agreement on Friday night between the majority unions and Education, teachers are called from this Monday to express their opinion on the pact, which foresees a gross monthly salary increase of 450 euros over four years. The consultation, which has been sent to teachers' corporate email, started at 12 noon and will last until Thursday at the same time. By 8 p.m. on the first day, more than 17,000 teachers out of a census of 94,490 had participated, 18%. Teachers must vote whether to accept the agreement, as proposed by USTEC, or to continue with the strikes planned until the summer holidays, the option defended by CGT, Intersindical and COS. In fact, these three unions have promoted new actions. This very Monday, about 200 teachers carried out a slow march in Montserrat and occupied the atrium of the Basilica of Santa Maria de Montserrat to hold an assembly and debate the preliminary agreement with Education. It is an unusual image, as a demonstration had never entered this space before. Around four in the afternoon, they ended the protest. In parallel, tonight about 300 teachers have set up a camp in front of the Territorial Services of Education in Girona and, later, organized a debate on the preliminary agreement, called by the Coordinator of Educational Assemblies.

The Minister of Education and Professional Training, Esther Niubó, speaks to ARA a few hours after the signing of the pre-agreement between her department and the majority unions in the sector after eight negotiation meetings.

The consultation on the preliminary agreement between the majority unions and the Department of Education will begin on Monday at 12 noon and will last until Thursday. For this reason, USTEC and Professors of Secondary Education have announced that they are calling off the territorial strikes planned until Thursday “as a day of reflection” while the vote is open. However, the call for Friday is maintained pending teachers evaluating the preliminary agreement with the Government.

Images from this morning, when the Government met in extraordinary executive council to approve the budgetsMeanwhile, the teachers' strike continues, as we explain. The teachers' unions are not letting up. The negotiation between the Government and the union representatives will continue today: they remain stuck on improving salaries and, despite the wear and tear that maintaining the stoppages means, the unions are determined to continue them.

This afternoon, the Department of Education has sent its proposal for negotiation to the unions. As detailed in the document made public by CGT and USTEC, the Government will put on the table the option of advancing by one year the already agreed salary increase and the possibility of making a "remuneration improvement" through the bonuses that teachers receive for being responsible for tutoring. Although sources from Education insist that they will not explain or confirm the details of the proposal until after the meeting with the unions, CGT and USTEC have sent the same working document to the press with the Department of Education's watermark.

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.