The teachers who voted 'no' to the agreement speak: “We need a change of model, and salary won't fix this”

Barcelona“We need a change of model, and a salary increase won't fix this”. The phrase is said by Albert, who has been a teacher in a Barcelona high school for twelve years, but the idea is also repeated by Jordi, Blanca, and Laura, all of them teachers in public schools. All four also denounce that they are trying to put in "patches" instead of addressing the underlying problems. "Perhaps USTEC has distanced itself from the people and hasn't understood us," admits Laura, given that the majority union voted yes in an agreement that 65% of public system teachers have rejected.

Faced with the question of why he voted no, Blanca, from Manresa, is very clear: "The agreement was a trap by the Government. This extra money doesn't solve the day-to-day problems in the classroom. Society can't think that we only want salary". "I am very happy that the no has won", she celebrates, although she admits that the result of the vote has surprised her. The assumption that it was all a matter of salary also indignates Jordi, a teacher in a Barcelona high school. "When we talk among ourselves after leaving an impossible class, the last thing you think about is salary. Everyone would sacrifice part of their salary to have a little more peace in the classroom", he details. He has been a teacher for eight years.

Beyond whether it was about salary or not, the reason they were demonstrating, Laura, from Vilanova del Camí, explains that the underlying problem is that "the world has changed a lot and they are asking us to face many more challenges with the same hands". In this sense, she recalls that in practical terms, the 6,400 allocations included in the rejected agreement would mean "one and a half more people per center". "It's a patch that solves nothing", she criticizes. Furthermore, she also denounces that "everything is asked of the school". "You have much more diverse students, with many more needs, and the Government tells you that you have to pass them and that if they don't pass, it's your fault", she laments.

Both Blanca, Laura, and Jordi also point to training and guidance problems. "We find ourselves having to go on a school trip with an adolescent with diabetes and we have to monitor them every hour, and have the CAP nurse teach us what to do if they have a crisis. We do it, but I don't know if it's my job and I don't think I have the preparation to do it. Besides, I have 20 more students to look after," exemplifies Blanca. In this regard, Laura also explains that she spends "more time being a police officer than teaching" and that they lack the staff and training to deal with disruptive students and those with special educational needs within the same classroom. In fact, the four teachers warn that inclusive school on paper "is very good" and they defend it, but it is not a reality in the classroom.

"We don't know how to assess"

Jordi speaks of a lack of clarity in educational laws and curricula. "You go to the reference documents and you don't understand how you have to evaluate. You can't have assessment criteria that are 15 subordinate clauses strung together one after another. This is impossible to evaluate in a single activity," he criticizes. He explains that here we need to add a methodological change and a shift in teaching perspective that is not being transmitted to the classrooms and that leaves teachers alone. "We have a big problem: we don't exactly understand what is being asked of us and what we have to do," he insists. That's why he asks the department to make a "very cheap proposal": that they create some programs with predefined criteria and activities that serve as a starting point for everyone, so that they can later be adapted to each situation within the center's autonomy.

Beyond these aspects, Jordi and Albert also warn of other problems. "I can tell you, for example, that this week there have been classrooms at 37 degrees, and that at my center we have been waiting for four months for them to change a broken tap," says Albert. And Jordi adds: "And here I add that there are students who take a year to get a diagnosis from the psychopedagogical teams because they can't cope with everything".