A green tide marches in València, Alicante, and Castelló for the teachers’ demands

To the cry of ”strike, strike, educational strike” or “the fighting teacher is also teaching”, among other chants, a thunderous green tide -because of the t-shirts that claim public school, “quality and in Valencian”- has marched through the streets of the Valencian capitals on this first Monday of indefinite strike in the education of the Valencian Community.

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The demonstration in Valencia started at noon amid emotional applause from the demonstrators who had occupied San Agustín square in Valencia for almost an hour before in a historic call. This is how the teaching staff, very mobilized on this first day, experience it: according to the calling unions, UGT-PV, CCOO-PV, STEPV and CSIF, the attendance at noon was 88%. “Many principals tell us they don’t have time to enter the data in Ítaca – the Education program -, but we are seeing that the attendance is massive. It is a historic and unprecedented demonstration,” said Marc Candela, spokesperson for STEPV, the majority union. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education, at 1 p.m., offers a participation figure of 47.01% for the strike. By provinces, they explain that in Alicante it is 46.15%, in Castellón 42.60%, and in Valencia, 49.1%.

From the CSIF union, its regional representative, José Seco, has assured that “the percentages given by the Ministry do not correspond to reality” and hopes that the march will be “a turning point for the Ministry to show a real negotiating attitude.” For its part, from CCOO-PV, Xelo Valls has declared that the figures “exceed all the forecasts we had” while Maite Martínez, from UGT-PV, has recalled that for the strike to end it is necessary that “Education deigns to negotiate some needs that we have been demanding since September.”

At half past twelve, when the head of the march was already crossing the Town Hall square, hundreds of teachers were still stopped at the start waiting to begin a march in which banners and collective messages follow one another, but also individual ones, claiming specific situations in each center. According to the figures reported by the Government Delegation, 20,000 people marched in Valencia.

This is the case of the teaching staff of IES Berenguer Dalmau in Catarroja, affected by the October 2024 dana. “We continue in temporary classrooms, and we are a very large institute, we are more than 500. They told us that our new institute will be ready for the 2029-30 school year but we don’t believe it, the works have not yet started and the classrooms are overcrowded. And although we have air conditioning, in winter it is very cold in the hallways and now, very hot,” explain its workers, who ask us to tell their situation. The teachers insist on highlighting the other demands of their protest, “we don’t only want salary increases, as is said,” reiterate other teachers from a nursery center. There they have held a draw among the teachers to see who would be assigned the minimum services, which the unions have requested to suspend provisionally, very much disagreeing with the obligation posed by the Ministry of Education.

Meanwhile, the TSJ has already ruled on the appeal filed against the minimum services in 2nd year of Bachillerato, which they consider “abusive.” The Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJCV) has issued two orders rejecting the suspension of the minimum services set by the Generalitat, not finding in the challenged resolution an “evident lack of motivation” nor a “notorious and evident lack of proportionality in the established services.”

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In the city of Alicante, the largest sectoral demonstration in recent years has been recorded, with the head surpassing the Renfe station and the tail still leaving the staircase that ascends to IES Jorge Juan, almost a kilometer away. From the Government Delegation, in fact, they have estimated attendance at 12,000 people. Thousands of teachers from the capital have been joined by groups from inland towns, such as Alcoi, Villena or La Nucia, and from other regions, such as La Vega Baja, who in some cases have attended the protest that took place simultaneously in Elx, where the Delegation estimates the number of demonstrators at 2,800.

For its part, the protest in Castelló de la Plana has gathered 5,100 people on a route that started at the city’s Aulas square. In the capital of La Plana, from CCOO-PV they point to a “massive attendance” although they criticize that “many teachers have not been able to exercise their right to strike due to minimum services, abusive, and they have not been allowed to participate in the massive demonstration in Castelló,” where they estimate that 15,000 people, including teachers, students, and families, have taken to the streets.

“We are here because we can’t take it anymore. Ratios even exceed legal ratios, for months colleagues who are on sick leave or leave have not been replaced,” explains Nacho, History teacher at IES Gran Alacant. He explains that his center “receives many students from abroad who have no knowledge of the language and public school is also for this, to welcome them and we need more resources.” And he adds that “our profession has gone years without receiving the social value it has and without being valued also in terms of salary.”

A group of teachers from Alcoi highlights that it is necessary to improve infrastructure and lower the ratio. They explain that in their center “we have increased the number of students by 20% with the same teachers as before.” From La Nucia, a Valencian teacher warns that next year they will have 30 students per class in Bachillerato, and laments “the constant attacks on the language by this ministry; they say this is about salary, but there are many other more important reasons.”

María, Language teacher at IES Virgen del Remedio, in the northern area of Alicante, emphasizes the ratio, a serious problem in her center, which this year has merged with another, “and the classrooms are very full.” She also adds that more help is needed “for inclusion and also for the number of students who come with no knowledge of the language.”

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