The Assembly of Teachers announces a year of mobilizations against the deterioration of public education

PalmaThe Teachers' Assembly faces the new school year with the intention of intensifying mobilizations in defense of public education. The collective denounced this Wednesday in Palma the deterioration of educational centers and demanded a change of course from the Government with more investment, better working conditions, and a reversal of the policies that, in their view, favor the privatization and segregation of the educational system.

The Assembly considers that the unrest existing in the centers is a consequence of years of "underfunding, cuts, and policies" that have been weakening the public system. Among the problems it points out are overcrowded classrooms, lack of staff, bureaucratic overload, late substitutions, instability of staff, loss of purchasing power, and deficiencies in infrastructure.

The collective has also focused on the Government's educational policies which, as it denounces, favor segregation and the commercialization of teaching. In this sense, it specifically points to the single zone, the language choice pilot plan, and measures that reinforce the private and charter network to the detriment of the public one.

More resources and less bureaucracy

Given this situation, the Assembly demands a reduction in ratios and teaching hours, less bureaucracy, and the immediate replacement of staff on leave. It also calls for stabilizing staff numbers and improving the working and salary conditions of teaching staff.

Another of the demands is an increase in human resources to guarantee inclusive education, with more professionals in guidance, therapeutic pedagogy, hearing and language, social education, and administrative staff. The group also demands "dignified and barracks-free" public schools, measures to compensate for the loss of purchasing power and the rising cost of living, as well as policies that take into account the housing crisis.

Precisely, the Assembly considers that the difficulty in accessing affordable housing and the rising cost of living have a direct impact on the teaching staff and hinder the filling of positions and staff stability. The group links this situation to the economic model of the Islands, which it considers excessively dependent on tourism and a generator of labor and residential precariousness.

Defense of Catalan

The Catalan language also occupies a central place in the teachers' demands. The Assembly accuses the Government of maintaining "denialist and obsessive" policies against Catalan and of questioning its role as the native language and social cohesion tool of the Balearic Islands.

In this sense, it defends compliance with the minimums decree and the school linguistic projects and rejects the language choice pilot plan, which it considers an "ideological" measure that does not respond to any pedagogical need and that could contribute to fragmenting the educational community. "Catalan is our tool for social cohesion," defends the Assembly, which demands that public education be a priority of public policies.

Call to dress the centers in yellow

The collective has announced that during this academic year there will be mobilizations to turn the unrest in schools into "organization and collective action" and involve teachers, educational staff, families, and the public as a whole. The first announced action is a call to wear yellow in educational centers on September 10th in support of the demands of teachers in the 0-3 age stage.

The Assembly assures that it will soon report on new actions and mobilizations agreed upon during the year. "The demands of the educational community are not privileges, but the minimum conditions necessary to guarantee the right to quality public education in Catalan," the collective defends. Furthermore, during the assembly, the teachers publicly thanked the support of the Madò Farta platform, which was in attendance.