The center of Madrid has once again been the scene this Tuesday of the demands of the teachers of the Community, who have challenged the rain that during the afternoon has been noticeable intermittently in the capital to demand improvements in their working conditions and more investment in classrooms.
As on May 8, the second day of strike called in non-university public education in the region has concluded with a large demonstration that has brought together thousands of people along the route, although on this occasion the rain has lackluster the protest.
The march started from Neptuno and continued along Paseo del Prado to Cibeles, where they began to go up Alcalá Street in the direction of Puerta del Sol. The rain has also delayed the start of the march, scheduled for 6:00 p.m. but it began its journey more than half an hour later.
The protest has been led by the unions of the Sectorial Roundtable (CC.OO, ANPE, CSIF and UGT), whose leaders have paraded behind a banner that read the same motto as in the protest on the 8th, “For the teachers, for public education.”
Precisely from these organizations, the Minister of Education, Science and Universities, Emilio Viciana, has been urged to sit down “to negotiate face to face” with them and to put “money on the table” to finance the measures they demand, after a second day of strike that they have described as “success”.
Specifically, the general secretary of the CC.OO Madrid Teaching Federation, Isabel Galvín, has stressed that “practically one hundred percent” of the public school teachers have supported one of the two days of strike, since “in many centers have taken turns.”
Galvín has also referred to Viciana’s intention to present to the unions a global pact for Madrid education, as he himself has announced, about which he has regretted the “very bad experience” they have had with the counselor when it came to negotiate and the “little credibility” they grant it.
For his part, the president of ANPE Madrid, Andrés Cebrián, has assured that the proposal for this plan “sounds bad” and believes that it is an attempt to “distract the attention” of public opinion, which is why he has urged Emilio Viciana to “sit down” and “restart negotiations” within the framework of the Sectoral Roundtable.
From CSIF, Miguel Ángel González has demanded “respect” for Madrid teachers and a “one-to-one” negotiation between them and the counselor with “money on the table” to achieve public education “that students and teachers deserve.”
“It does not make sense”, González pointed out, that the Community of Madrid is “at the top in the PISA Report”, but is the “thirteenth with the lowest paid teachers”.
The CSIF representative has pointed to the General Administration of the State to guarantee a reduction in school hours throughout the state territory, which is why she has not ruled out increasing mobilization “at the national level” for the start of the next course.
Finally, from UGT, Teresa Jusdado has asked the Ministry to “take note” of the “discomfort” of the teaching staff and address their demands, which, as she has stressed, are not exclusively directed “at job improvements”, but also “at promoting quality of teaching”.
“Help, listen, the public is in struggle”, “No, no, no, we do not want more debt with Health and Education” or “The rain does not stop us”, have been some of the slogans that have been raised. chanted during the march.
These two days of strike have had the support of both the Mesa unions, the Assembly Less Lectivas and the organizations STEM, CGT and CNT, also present at the march and which have already organized three days of strikes in Madrid public education last February, an initiative from which the majority then distanced themselves. Closing the demonstration you could see a representation of the political party Podemos, which has joined the demand.
Also from addition, the deputy in Congress Toni Valero expressed the support of his Parliamentary Group for the demands of the Madrid teachers during the rally that in the morning brought together hundreds of people – 900 according to the Government Delegation – in front of the headquarters of the Ministry on Alcalá Street.
The reduction of school hours is, along with the drop in ratios, the equalization of salaries with other autonomous communities, the reduction of bureaucracy or the improvement of attention to diversity, the main complaints of these strikes.
On April 8, the unions rejected the proposal that Viciana formulated to reduce the teaching hours of Secondary, Vocational Training and Special Regime teachers in the 2026/27 academic year.
The rejected proposal, which replaces the one initially proposed by the Ministry, assumes that all Secondary, Vocational Training and Special Regime teachers spend from 20 to 19 weekly teaching hours in the 2026/27 academic year as the first step in a general reduction of the hours in the whole of Madrid education throughout the legislature.
The organizations present in the Education Board demand the recovery of the school schedule to 18 hours in Secondary, Vocational Training and Special Regime; the reduction of the preschool and primary school hours to 23 hours; salary equalization with the rest of the autonomous communities; the lowering of ratios and provision of quotas necessary for measures to address diversity, and a shock plan “against bureaucracy.”
The second day of strike called this May has had a following of more than 67% according to the unions – two points more than the figure they estimated on May 8 – and 23.4% according to the regional government – 1.1 points less than the percentage that the Administration calculated then–.
