Dressed as clowns, and even wearing a sequined hat, the director and head of studies at the CEIP Teodoro Llorente de València welcomed the students yesterday on the first day of the new course. There was music while they waited for them at the door to give them “a loving and playful welcome,” explains Juanjo Rodríguez, the director of this school who has chosen the circus theme for the welcome of these days in which the most important thing is to adapt to the rhythm of the school.
“These days are for accompaniment, so that they get to know their class, or the center if they are new, and so that they adapt to everything and everyone,” adds Rodríguez. There are 450 students and you can hear their high-pitched voices shouting in the inner courtyard. In the afternoon – especially when October arrives and the day gets longer – the corner kiosk will work overtime to serve the children. “It was noticed, yes, this morning it was full of children,” explains its owner.
At the entrance to Teodoro Llorente, a message that talks about how important it is to treat each other well; books waiting for readers on the stool at the entrance and a string of panels that long for the first exhibition of the course. There is a party atmosphere here, with garlands and pennants, as in the rest of the Valencian preschool and primary schools where 406,800 students are enrolled.
Behind the scenes, however, the centers are experiencing some problems at the start. The Association of directors of preschool and primary public school centers in the province of Valencia assured that “today there has been a lack of staff in educational centers”, an “exceptional” situation that they link to the latest awards, according to Carlos Justo Gutiérrez, your president.
The STEPV union warned that in Thursday’s award “only vacancies and very few substitutions were offered” and many centers “do not have the full staff to serve all students.” Meanwhile, UGT Ensenyament pointed out that the situation has arisen due to “the very conflictive awards that there were and because the last ones were also erroneous.” At the close of this edition, new awards were expected.
Meanwhile, the Department of Education assured that these dates are continuous awards, they are made to cover retirements, long-term sick leave or unforeseen situations. He added that there were “no incidents” – until the closing of this edition – with the exception of two cases in Alicante, but they clarified that they were not due to adjudication problems, but rather to a lack of educators in two centers in Elda.
Councilor José Antonio Rovira inaugurated the course at the CEIP La Constitución and at the IES Riu Túria in Quart de Poblet, since classes also began for ESO, Baccalaureate, FP and Special Education. In one of them, La Encarnación de Torrent, the start was somewhat hectic because the school bus did not appear at the different stops yesterday and it was the parents who coordinated to accompany them to class. In total, Education reported that 14 of the 197 buses in the entire province of Valencia had not carried out their routes, which has affected the students of five special education centers, three institutes and two schools.
Meanwhile, in high schools, the problems of the first day were combined with pubescent emotions. Kids at the door rolling the ball, groups that form after the first class… The IES Abastos yesterday coordinated the presentations for 1,950 students and for Vicen Gurrea, its vice-rector, “it is a very stressful day.” “We already started teaching,” she remembers. There is nothing left of the children’s flags here.
