You don't have to be an expert to deduce that if our students are doing very poorly in calculation and reading, they would need to increase (and intensify) the hours of mathematics and language, from primary to secondary school. This is as evident as it is complicated to rectify in the short term. Precisely, the latest innovations have stolen the spotlight from these two basic areas of knowledge and have been sacrificed (or mixed) with other proposals that are perhaps more attractive to students, but which PISA results confirm are distancing us dizzyingly from the minimum requirements.

This summer that is now ending has undoubtedly been one of the strangest I remember as a teacher. It is a summer that has come after a very turbulent school year, with mobilizations that have certainly been historic, but which have left us exhausted.

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).

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.

The rise of far-right thinking in our society has consequences that also affect life in schools. But what we should ask ourselves is whether we, at school, are sufficiently effective in counterbalancing this ideological trend, or whether we are unwittingly fueling it.