Families, unions and teachers: first unified demonstration in three years to demand improvements

BarcelonaAll the unions in the sector, associations of families from both public and state-subsidized private schools, and various teachers' platforms have called for a demonstration this Saturday to demand improvements in Catalan education. The mobilization, which for the first time since 2022 – when Josep González-Cambray was Minister of Education under the ERC government – will be a unified one, kicking off at 12 noon in Plaça Urquinaona in Barcelona. Initially, the demonstration was called by the teachers' unions USTEC, ASPEPC, CCOO Ensenyament, CGT Ensenyament, and UGT Ensenyament to demand improvements in the working conditions of teachers. However, other organizations and platforms have ultimately joined the mobilization, each with their own specific demands.

The unions denounce that the working conditions of educational staff have "significantly worsened," citing a shortage of personnel in various specialties, a sustained loss of purchasing power since 2009, an increased bureaucratic burden, and a lack of resources to implement the inclusive education decree.

They also demand lower ratios -the number of students per classroom or group-, repeal the staffing decree, and "establish curricula negotiated and agreed upon with the teaching staff." For all these reasons, they assert that they will demonstrate on Saturday to demand "the immediate opening of genuine negotiations" with the Department of Education.

Clash for subsidized private schools

Among the organizations joining the call are Philosophy Teachers, Teachers for Housing, the Science in Danger platform, student unions, Pindoc, the 0-3 platform, and the Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Barcelona (FAVB). The Federation of Parents' Associations (AFFAC), which encompasses most parent-teacher associations in public schools, has also joined. Families and parent-teacher associations are demanding a strengthening of the public school system, the immediate and comprehensive implementation of the inclusive education decree, and a fight against school segregation.

AFFAC is also urging a review of publicly funded private schools and a reduction in inefficient public spending resulting from surplus places being allocated to these schools. In this regard, the USOC Teaching Federation (FEUSOC), the largest union representing private schools, will also be demonstrating this Saturday, though not in conjunction with the other demonstrations. FEUSOC has criticized the attacks on these schools and insisted that they will mobilize to "make visible the demands of the entire Catalan Education Service, and especially those of the schools." Meanwhile, CCAPAC, representing the Parents' Associations of Christian schools, also demanded that "no measures be taken that marginalize the private school sector," which represents 30% of the education system.