The largest federation of families in Catalonia has regretted the new change in criteria regarding the start of the school year which, as announced yesterday, Thursday, by Minister Anna Simó will be the second week of September, the 9th for all compulsory education.
For the Federated Associations of Student Families of Catalonia (aFFaC), the decision to advance the course to the first week of September, taken “unilaterally” two years ago, was made based on “pedagogical criteria”, to serve the most vulnerable students, and, on the other hand, now these criteria have no longer counted and the “logistical” criteria, the need to give educational centers time to prepare the school year, have more value.
The aFFaC is one of the main family associations in the public sector. Fapel, more of a minority but with a presence in charter schools, considers that it is more important that the course is well prepared. Sources from the association indicate that “if the school directors and teachers have expressed themselves about the need to have 5 days to prepare the course, the change in calendar seems good to us,” they maintain and remember that this is what the Consell d’Consell d’ expressed. Education of Catalonia to Minister Anna Simó.
On the other hand, aFFaC asks the Department of Education “to be consistent with the decisions made, to maintain the advancement of the school year and to work with planning so that teachers, families and students experience the beginning of the school year without anxiety,” said the president. of the aFFaC, Belén Tascón.
Tascón explained that without agreeing with the way in which the advancement of the school calendar was imposed two years ago, “without consensus” and with “a lot of stress for the centers”, “strikes”, “lack of organization, incomplete staff” , the association shared the objective of the initiative, to shorten vacations for students, thinking especially of the most vulnerable, who do not have training options in the summer months. “We wonder what has changed so that it is not like this now,” asks Tascón.
In his opinion, greater stability is needed in the educational system and he believes that it can be achieved. “Many countries around us, with climatic, social and economic characteristics similar to ours, begin the course at the beginning of September and this does not represent a disaster,” he points out. And this is so, he develops, because it is planned, staff is assigned in advance and teacher training is planned.
In his opinion, it could be partially guaranteed if continuous training of teachers was encouraged during the school year, the month of July was reserved for planning the course and the appointments of teachers were brought forward so that the centers knew their staff. Educació’s objective should be to work to achieve more stable staff, “key to guaranteeing the proper functioning of educational centers.”
The Government’s star measure, the advancement of the school year to the first week of September, has lasted two years. The Minister of Education, Anna Simó, announced yesterday that, in an “exceptional” manner and in response to the requests of the educational community, this year the schools will not start the course on the fourth working day of September but on the sixth, which is Monday the 9th. of September. Simó justified the decision by saying that it is not the first week of September, but it is not after the National Day, as happened three years ago.
Thus, the 2024-2025 school year in early childhood, primary and ESO education will begin on Monday, September 9 and will end on Friday, June 20. In high school and intermediate level vocational training (FP) it will do so on the 12th, and in higher level FP, on the 19th of the same month.
The advancement of the calendar was a measure announced in February 2022 by President Pere Aragonès and Minister Josep Gonzàlez-Cambray to, it was said, reduce the long summer period that especially harmed students from the most disadvantaged classes who, during the summer , they did not receive cultural stimuli. In addition, the aim was to benefit families and their possibilities for reconciliation.
But the multiple implications of the decision had not been foreseen nor did they have the consensus of the educational community. The Government had to deal with the consequences. The first year, September afternoons were left free (to balance the teachers’ teaching hours) and a free educational leisure service was improvised for families (it cost the Government 12 million) which, it was later assessed, was a failure. .
In the second course, that is, 2023-2024, it began on Wednesday, September 6, and the schools only had three days to prepare the course (with new teachers, new curricula, projects) and with the incorporation of students themselves. day 5. They could not prepare the course in July because the entire staff was not defined until September 1. And it would not have been possible before either because an agreement was in force that protected the presence of teachers in the educational center in July. As a result of the unrest due to the advance of the calendar that generated strikes and protests during 2022, the previous councilor signed that they could not be required to work at the center in July 2023 and 2024. Therefore, not in this one either.
The councilor yesterday acknowledged having received numerous requests from directors and teachers so that the haste in preparation is not repeated. The Consell d’Educació, which represents the entire educational community, was also forceful: the 2024-2025 academic year was to begin on September 9. The families refrained from giving a date, they only expressed that they wanted their children to start in optimal conditions. The unions, for their part, wanted to return to the 12th, as it was before, but Simó pointed out yesterday, as Aragonès himself had done the day before in the Parliament, that in no way would they return to September 12.
The councilor defined the delay of the calendar as an “exceptional” measure because Educació is considering changing the organization of all school time, from the calendar (break weeks, shorter summers), school time and extracurricular time, and intensive day. But before touching anything he wants to evaluate the current state, think of an appropriate proposal and reach a consensus with everyone. This remains, she noted, for the next legislature.
In any case, September 2024 and, probably, 2025, will not be able to start on the fourth business day, as established by its predecessor.
“As long as we do not have the evaluation that we have commissioned from Ivàlua, we will not set a fixed criterion for the start of the course and we will be able to make it more flexible towards the date that has the most global consensus,” he told reporters.