Even though it is the middle of the Easter school holidays, the Department of Education has not gone even two days without a figure in charge of the General Directorate of State-funded and Private Schools. After the then Director General of the area, Xavier Güell, presented his resignation "for personal reasons" this Monday, this Wednesday the Government has appointed Toni Aguilar as the new Director General of State-funded and Private Schools. this Monday the then Director General of the area, Xavier Güell, presented his resignation "for personal reasons", this Wednesday the Government has appointed Toni Aguilar as the new Director General of State-funded and Private Schools.

New change in the structure of the Department of Education. The until now Director General of Concerted and Private Schools of the Generalitat, Xavier Güell, has presented his resignation, as advanced by the Efe agency and confirmed by ARA. Sources from the Department of Education indicate that Güell has made this decision "for personal reasons". The resignation comes three weeks after the Government agreed to 390 million euros to address the "historic underfunding" of subsidized schools.

The conflict in education has made evident the unrest felt in schools and institutes, as well as the difficulties in finding solutions. An increasingly unequal society is bringing serious social problems to educational institutions. Growing inequalities, extreme poverty, social violence, and mental illness generate conflicts that teachers must face without the necessary resources and with a sense of isolation and abandonment. Signs on the doors of some schools express this clearly: "We are outraged that the educational psychologist is not part of the school staff"; "We are outraged that we have to train ourselves in our free time and at our own expense in dyslexia, autism spectrum disorder, specific language impairment, ADHD, dyscalculia..."

Charter schools are thriving, especially those that carry out social integration work, which, contrary to what some believe, is quite important. Elite private schools (without government funding) are often confused with charter schools, which encompass a wide variety: teachers' cooperatives, religious schools, etc. In Barcelona's Raval district, where ARA is based, there are several long-established charter schools that serve thousands of children from low-income families with diverse backgrounds. This does not mean that public education, across Catalonia, is responsible for the bulk of education. Including preschool, primary, secondary, and vocational training, the figures are as follows: 3,835 public schools (with over one million students, 65% of the total and 75% of all Catalan students with special educational needs) and 681 charter schools (350,000 students, 22%). There are 940 private, non-subsidized schools (more than 150,000 students, 11% of the total, and 2.7% of those with special needs).

The negotiations between the teachers' unions and the Catalan government will have one more chapter. This comes after the Department of Education announced on Monday that... will agree to an improvement agreement with CCOO and UGT without Ustec (the majority union)Now, 24 hours later, Ustec has announced it will consult all teachers to decide whether or not to endorse the government's agreement. Although the union still opposes the agreement with the government—which, among other things, includes a €3,000 gross annual salary increase for teachers and €300 million for inclusive education—Ustec, along with CGT and Intersindical, has opened a consultation for all educational staff. The unions want teachers to decide whether or not to endorse the proposed agreement. The consultation was sent this morning to the XTEC email addresses of all teachers and will remain open until Friday, March 13. This means it will close three days before the start of the week-long strike called by the education unions, which CCOO and UGT have distanced themselves from after signing the agreement with the government.

Families, unions, and employers' associations representing state-subsidized private schools have joined forces for the first time to demand increased funding, more resources for inclusive education, and an additional 3,300 teachers. The group has launched a petition campaign urging parliamentary groups to propose amendments to the bill that would guarantee 6% of GDP for education, specifically to include state-subsidized private schools. Meanwhile, the Federation of Federated Associations of Families of Students of Catalonia (AFFAC) launched a campaign to promote public schools as the "best educational option" and criticized the "almost automatic" renewal of funding agreements. Within the state-subsidized private school sector, the alliance—representing 677 schools, 340,000 students, and 30,000 employees—is demanding more funding to guarantee free education in state-subsidized private schools, an increase in staff to match that of public schools, and standardization of salaries and working conditions. On the other hand, regarding the changes introduced in the renewal of agreements—when public funding is given to private schools to obtain public funding—at all educational levels, justified by the Department of Education as necessary to "give stability to the system," the spokesperson for the employers' associations and general secretary of the Christian School Foundation of Catalonia (FECC), Meritxell Ruiz, admitted that they are not entirely satisfied but that, for the time being, they will prioritize negotiations with the department. Another of the most significant changes introduced by the Department of Education is that these agreements will have a duration of six years.

"Yes, I'm a teacher. A high school teacher." "Oh, sigh, I couldn't." Zero interest. Absent gaze. "I'm also a journalist." "A journalist? Wow. And where do you write?" "Exactly. I'm the same person, and I've dedicated my whole life to teaching, but I always end up talking about my journalistic side, which seems—only seems—more exciting. My real job, the day-to-day work, and my true calling doesn't generate any interest or isn't considered a prestigious profession. People look at teachers with pity and almost offer their condolences for having a profession that until relatively recently was admired, valued, and loved."

"Today, more female students can share a classroom with classmates from their neighborhood than in the past." This was one of the conclusions presented this Thursday by the director of the Bofill Foundation, Ismael Palacín, at the presentation of the study. The charter school today. Unlike what the data showed just a decade ago, today, six years after the National Pact against Segregation, the system is beginning to see a significant improvement, especially with the change in the role of a large part of the subsidized schools.

One of the differences between state-subsidized and public schools in Catalonia is the number of class hours students attend. Broadly speaking, if a student attends a public school, they will almost certainly attend 175 fewer hours of class than if they attend a state-subsidized school. The reason behind this inequality is the well-known sixth hour, which applies to all state-subsidized schools but is almost nonexistent in public schools, where the vast majority of students attend a five-hour school day, with the exception of highly complex schools and junior high schools. The advisability of restoring this hour to public education has been debated for years in political and educational circles, but now the government has once again kicked the can down the road.

Another case of Catalan schools opting to lose their Education funding to maintain a system that separates students by sex. After two schools in Vallès announced a few months ago that they were merging to maintain gender segregation, two schools in Girona are now following the same path. These are Bell-lloc and Les Alzines, two Opus Dei schools that have offered education from nursery to high school in Girona for more than 50 years and serve nearly 2,300 students.

Last year, private vocational training (VT) courses enrolled twice as many students as just five years ago. This increased interest in private vocational training (VT) courses has not been a novelty for years: in recent years, the number of students enrolled in private VT courses has always been higher than in state-funded VT courses at this stage of post-compulsory education. In the 2019-2020 academic year, private VT courses had 40,989 students, almost 20,000 more than those enrolled in state-funded VT courses. However, this gap has widened to the point that last year there were approximately 60,000 more students enrolled in private VT courses (82,009) than in state-funded VT courses (21,963).

In recent years, a common question has been asked at the beginning of each school year: "How many groups—or lines—have had to be closed?" This concern makes perfect sense, since the plummeting birth rate that Catalonia has been experiencing for almost two decades has an obvious consequence: fewer and fewer students are starting school in the third grade. However, this demographic evolution has facilitated the improvement of some aspects of the education system, such as the reduction of ratios in preschool and primary school.not in high schools, where many classrooms have more than 25 students–, the reduction in student numbers is also causing school closures in Catalonia, especially among state-subsidized schools.