This Tuesday, negotiations between the Departament de Educació and the unions resume to unblock the educational conflict in Catalonia. They do so amid the call for a cycle of strikes and demonstrations that, if supported by public school teachers as so far, will especially pressure the city of Barcelona and its metropolitan area this week. This occurs in a context of rising temperatures that will increase initiatives by teachers throughout Catalonia to take desks and tables to the streets to highlight the lack of air conditioning in school buildings.
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The unions pin their hopes on the Wednesday demonstration to which all Catalan educational centers are called
The pro-independence student union SEPC has called for a secondary and university student strike on Tuesday in support of public education demands. The demonstration will start at Plaça Universitat at 12 noon.
At 5:30 p.m., the sectoral table meeting is scheduled to begin at the Educació headquarters on Via Augusta with union representatives, except Professors de Secundària who will not attend. The organizations (Ustec, CGT, and Intersindical) expected to receive a concrete proposal to see if the administration’s position approaches their demands. There is still a large gap between the positions of both parties regarding both remuneration and inclusive schooling.
The unions pin their hopes on the Wednesday demonstration, the second at the Catalonia level, and the tenth so far this month. Ustec and the other organizations not signing the pact ask the teaching staff to massively support the strike and attend the protests being organized to measure the magnitude of their discontent.
Although no binding schedule has been set, negotiations will continue as both parties show willingness to negotiate daily regardless of the mobilizations.
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On Thursday, teachers from Maresme and Vallès are called to mobilize, and on Friday, those from Baix Llobregat and Penedès.
Directors
Educació is also receiving pressure from public school directors. More than half (1,343 directors in total) demand from the Govern scheduled structural measures and the ability to participate in decisions made regarding the country’s education. Tired of the “improvisations” of various governments, they have sent a formal request to the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, and the consellera of Educació, Esther Niubó, to resolve the “emergency of the educational system.”
In a move outside the union tables, the center heads have set June 19 as the deadline for the Govern to formalize in writing an executive and budgetary commitment to establish joint working teams.
The manifesto demands that directors have “a weighted vote” in decisions about staff and structural reforms. As urgent measures, they call for reviewing inclusive schooling with more specialized staff and lower ratios, immediate coverage of absences, and greater autonomy to ensure the continuity of their teaching teams. They also request salary equalization, legal protection to avoid their defenselessness, regulation of digital disconnection, and the eradication of temporary classrooms with efficiently air-conditioned infrastructures.
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