Parliament will debate this week, starting today, the state of education in Catalonia, with indicators down on all fronts and a community of teachers disaffected with the Administration.
The situation is worrying. The performance of Catalan students is falling, and is at levels of ten years ago, behind Spain and Europe. Political parties are aware of the need to find solutions. The socialist Salvador Illa was the first to pronounce the concept educational pact, with a vision of the future, shared and, if possible, maintained over time. Rule who rules. But the idea of ??consensus was already taking root in other political forces.
The change in the head of the ministry, now led by Anna Simó, and the possibility of a conservative government coming to power in Spain (changing language or co-education policies, for example) can help to bring together the main political forces in Parliament around ‘a pact for education with two aspects: specific educational improvement objectives and the defense of a school in Catalan.
It is not a moment of political serenity due to the readjustments in municipal power and the new positions of the parties before the elections of 23-J. And the open wound between several parties due to the row at the Barcelona City Council is also an influence. But there seems to be consensus on the idea that political noise should not distract from what constitutes an opportunity to strengthen long-term consensus.
The monographic plenum, requested by Junts, was scheduled for Tuesday, June 13, to reprimand Josep Gonzàlez-Cambray, but his dismissal, the previous day, and the appointment of Anna Simó, meant that postpone two weeks. During this time, the agenda of the new manager has been frantic with the aim of regaining trust. He has met with parliamentary groups, trade unions, the Catalan School Council, center management and municipal associations. He sent a letter to all the teachers: “We will change things, I need your complicity”.
In an interview with TV3, on the day when the school year ended – which, exams in the middle, gives him a break until September -, Simó explained that he will immerse himself in the data to make decisions, some of them “surgical”, depending on where the wound bleeds the most. “We will not cheat the solitaire”, he assured.
The drop in skills affects all students (mathematics, Catalan, English). Reading comprehension has fallen again. It already went down in 2016, but no measurements were taken, neither then nor now. A reading plan will be presented in July. All in all, the indicator that places us at the level of less developed countries is that of school dropouts (students aged 18 to 24 without post-secondary education). Europe sets the target for Spain at 10%, and Spain exceeds it by almost four points. Catalonia is at 16.9%. The pandemic is one of the justifications for these indicators, but the minister will have to explain why they fall more in Catalonia than in the rest of the Spanish autonomous regions.
The proposed pact for education that the PSC will defend includes a series of ambitious proposals to reduce school dropouts and improve grades with a plan to reduce the number of students with low skills to less than 15% and raise the high ones to 40%. Measures from years ago are rescued, such as the sixth hour in some public schools and the reinstatement of personalized school support, promoted by councilor Irene Rigau, which offered lagging students extra time to reinforce their knowledge. In addition, they insist on English, on the reinforcement of Catalan and on inclusive schools (a financial item of 100 million is needed, plus specialized staff, and a psychologist in each institute for the coming year).
These aspects are also covered by Junts, which will open today’s plenary session and which will also include support measures for disadvantaged students and the push for inclusive schools. In Comú Podemos, on the other hand, in addition to academic aspects, they urge to improve VET and air conditioning in the centers. For ERC, a consensus to combat school bullying and attacks on the linguistic model is also a priority.
The Minister has already announced that she will defend a “country pact” to prevent abandonment, which is closely linked to social inequality, something that goes beyond the action of education. In the political field, Simó will seek a broad pact in the defense of Catalan in the face of the declarations of the new governments in the Valencian Community and the Islands regarding the school language model and the reduction of the presence of Catalan in schools.
