High turnout for the educational strike in the Valencian Country: "They are dismantling the public system"

ValenciaAlmost 40% of the staff –38.5% pending the final figure, which will be made public tomorrow–, according to the Generalitat, and up to 80%, according to workers' representatives. The educational strike called this Tuesday in the Valencian Country by the unions STEPV, Comisiones Obreras, UGT, and CSIF has achieved significant participation from teachers who have also filled the streets of the main cities to denounce the "critical situation" in public schools that are "overcrowded and lacking human and material resources". A discontent that, if negotiations between unions and the administration do not prevent it, could lead to an indefinite strike at the end of May.

"We are mobilizing because they are dismantling the public education system to promote private subsidized schools," Diego Roig, a social sciences, geography, and history teacher in the municipality of Líria, complained to el ARA during the demonstration that closed the day of protest in València, in which, according to the Spanish government's delegation, 16,000 people participated. It is the largest in the Valencian Country, as 10,000 teachers attended the one in Alicante and 1,500 in Castelló de la Plana, also according to the Spanish government's delegation.

"We need to lower student-to-teacher ratios in classrooms, reduce bureaucracy, and provide more resources to make the inclusion we are asked for possible," emphasized Sonia Chornet, a physics and chemistry teacher in the town of Carlet, also present at the march in València. The list of demands was completed by the unions, who added the requirement for salary and staff improvements and the promotion of education in Valencian.

Despite the economic cost that each teacher has assumed for participating in the strike – the figure depends on each worker and is equivalent to 1.4 days of ordinary salary – the mobilization has been characterized by a playful atmosphere, which has been favored by the success of the call. The usual and noisy batucadas and hundreds of whistles have also helped. Visually, the green color of the now classic t-shirts of the Plataforma per la Llengua, which recall that "the language is not to be touched", has dominated, as well as those that cry out "for a public school". Similarly, hundreds of posters that have accompanied the teachers have played an important role, where, among other slogans, one could read "Fighting is also educating", "Dignified teaching staff = quality education" or At the end of the protest, the unions have celebrated a participation that they have considered "spectacular". Even more so if one takes into account that this Tuesday's has been the second strike in the last four months in the sector. In fact, Marc Candela, spokesperson for STEPV, has described the day as "historic".

Government and unions will meet on April 16

To prevent the situation from escalating into an indefinite strike, representatives of the Generalitat and the unions will meet on April 16. The Ministry of Education assures that they will attend the meeting with "the will to open a stage of constructive dialogue and to approach the negotiation from a position of concession by both parties." The general secretary of the CCOO Education Federation, Xelo Valls, is not convinced, having demanded of the Generalitat "effective and real negotiation with proposals and budgets on the table" that surpass "the empty promises" they have received so far. Chornet also does not believe it, predicting that teachers "will have to go on an indefinite strike." "If not, the administration will not yield," she concludes.