On Tuesday, the Tarragona region saw protests from teachers who were not satisfied with the salary increase agreed upon by the CCOO and UGT unions with the government. The improvement included, among other things, an increase of around 3,000 euros per year. Not bad, but three unions (USTEC, Intersindical, and CGT) were not entirely convinced and organized a consultation.95% of voters rejected the agreement. It should be noted that 40,000 teachers participated, more than half of the total. The strikes that began this week and end on Friday with a demonstration in Barcelona therefore have very broad support among professionals.
To understand the reasons, one only needs to enter the classrooms. There, we will find a student body very different from the one we adults remember. There will be children with special needs, because schools are now inclusive. This means that we don't leave anyone behind and that we try to ensure that all children are mixed together. Special education schools – says the Catalan government – are a thing of the past, and the future is inclusion. It sounds very good, but this inclusion is a farce if it is not accompanied by sufficient resources. Schools must fight to obtain additional support staff to attend to these children, and in many cases, they can consider themselves lucky if they manage to get them for even a few hours. The lack of support is such that some parents are even demanding a place in a special education school, one of those from the past. If we go into the classrooms, we'll also find children newly arrived in the country, carrying burdens we can't even imagine, starting with the language barrier and continuing with poverty, which also affects many native families. If we look closely, we'll also find another profile that grows more prevalent year after year: children who have no boundaries. They shout, hit, and talk back because their parents have raised them that way. They are the authority themselves, and if a teacher dares to reprimand them, they'll have to explain themselves to their parents afterward. These are the children destined to be the (stolen) engine of this country, which without education is going nowhere.
