Educational "Mascletà" in Valencia: 35,000 teachers flood the streets to demand improvements

ValenciaThree days before a key meeting between the Valencian government and unions to end the indefinite strike in education that began on Monday, this Friday teachers once again made a show of force with a massive demonstration that paralyzed the center of Valencia and was joined by students, who also went on strike. According to the Spanish government's delegation, the march brought together more than 35,000 people.

The demonstration was led by the general secretaries of the organizing unions —STEPV, CCOO, UGT, and CSIF—, who carried a banner summarizing the workers' demands: reduction of bureaucracy, lower student-to-classroom ratios, increased staffing to address diversity, improved infrastructure, salary increases, and strengthening of education in Valencian. Alongside the teachers' representatives, there were also protesters dressed in black carrying wreaths and coffins to symbolize the death of public education, holding signs with phrases like "Dead for not being able to attend to diversity" or "Dead for linguistic negationism."

The march was the act of a new strike day —the fifth consecutive one—, which, according to provisional data from the Ministry of Education at 1 p.m., was supported by 35% of teachers. The final figure will be made public at 6 p.m. Furthermore, it took place the day after Education and the unions met for just over four hours to try to bridge the gap. The meeting ended without agreement and with dissatisfaction from the workers' representatives due to the lack of concrete details in the improvement plan presented by the Generalitat and the absence of a salary increase offer.

"That there was no salary proposal today is a lack of respect for the dignity of the profession," summarized Xelo Valls, a representative of CCOO. Regarding the other demands, STEPV complained that the plan to improve thermal comfort and accessibility of the centers did not include dates and that the proposal to reduce ratios only aimed to adapt to the state calendar. Where the offer was better received was in the simplification of bureaucracy. "The rest is very weak," stated Maite Tarazona, a leader of UGT.

More hopeful was the Minister of Education, Carmen Ortí, who congratulated herself because a path of understanding had opened and who committed to making a salary improvement proposal on Monday; however, she warned that the proposal would be within the budgetary limits of the Generalitat. "As far as possible," she emphasized.

In the Town Hall square, demonstrators have brought two large effigies of the President of the Generalitat, Juanfran Pérez Llorca, and the councilor Ortí, and have set off an "educational mascletà" with a deafening noise of pots and whistles.