Thousands of people – about 4,000 according to police sources consulted by Europa Press – supported the demonstration yesterday Wednesday afternoon that passed through the center of Madrid and with which the educational unions put the finishing touch to the first of the days of strike called for this month of May to demand a reduction in teaching hours and ratios in the new Community Teaching Sector Agreement.
Under the motto ‘For teachers, for public education’, the protesters, convened by the four organizations represented in the Education Sector Roundtable – CC.OO, ANPE, CSIF and UGT – participated around 6:15 p.m. from the Plaza de Cánovas del Castillo, next to the statue of Neptune and from there they went up the Paseo del Prado to Cibeles, where they continued along Calle de Alcalá towards Puerta del Sol.
Among the slogans chanted during the march, some could be heard in favor of the strike or against the diversion of economic resources from public to private education. ‘The teacher, fighting, she is also teaching’; ‘less lessons, more quality’; ‘with this ratio they don’t even fit in the yard’ and ‘once there was a counselor from Pesetero who did not want to negotiate’ (in reference to the head of the Ministry of Education, Science and Universities, Emilio Viciana), have been other of the most popular mottos. repeated, along with those who demand equalization of the salaries of Madrid teachers with those of their colleagues in the rest of the State.
The reduction of school hours is, along with the lowering of 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, which will have a second round next May 21.
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.”
In statements to the media at the beginning of the march, the general secretary of the CC.OO Madrid Teaching Federation, Isabel Galvín, accused the Community of Madrid of “disdaining the teachers” of the public with a “political decision” , to once again deny that the problem is budgetary, as the autonomous Administration maintains, about which it has recalled the funds that private-concerted education receives in the region.
Galvín has warned of the departure of teachers that is taking place in Madrid towards other autonomies due to the working conditions that teachers find themselves in, while recalling that the reduction of teaching hours does not mean fewer working hours for professionals, but “more hours that can be dedicated to other activities for the benefit of the students.”
Both Galvín and Andrés Cebrián, from the ANPE union, have highlighted the “unanimous support of the teachers” on this day of strike, after which Cebrián has shown himself “satisfied” with the follow-up – which the unions have put at 65% while since The Community has lowered this figure to 24.5%– and believes that the balance is “more than positive.”
“All the teachers are with us,” stressed the representative of ANPE, who has warned that the mobilizations will continue at the end of the course and will continue at the beginning of the next one if the Ministry does not address their claims.
The head of Education at CSIF Madrid, Miguel Ángel González, has precisely asked the Administration to “rethink” in the face of the “pressure” exerted this Wednesday by teachers and “recognize that it is time to get to work” alongside the teachers.
Finally, Teresa Jusdado, from the UGT, has assured that Madrid teachers are “the most mistreated in the entire State”, after which she has defended the “very high” follow-up of the strike, especially in the capital, which shows, his trial, the “disenchantment” of the teachers and the “rejection” of the policies of the Community of Madrid.
Among the political representatives who attended the march to show their support for the teachers was the PSOE spokesperson in the Education Commission of the regional Assembly, Esteban Álvarez León, who defended that the teachers’ demands are “very reasonable” and They would mean an increase of only two percent in the budget, something that he considers “perfectly acceptable.”
This support is in addition to that provided by Más Madrid, present at the rally held in the morning in front of the Ministry’s headquarters. Specifically, her spokesperson in the Assembly, Manuela Bergerot, accused the regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, of having a “strategic plan” against public education “that guarantees equal opportunities and the future.”
Yesterday’s demonstration also included the mobilization that other organizations such as the STEM unions, CNT, CGT and the Less Teaching Assembly – which have also supported the strikes – have organized and which left half an hour earlier from Atocha.
At the press conference after the Government Council this Wednesday, the spokesperson for the regional government and counselor of the Presidency, Justice and Local Administration, Miguel Ángel García Martín, reiterated the “hand extended” by the Community to “each and every one of the union organizations representing teachers”, then demanding the measures already implemented in recent years to improve their working conditions and the quality of teaching, such as the salary increase or the decrease in the number of students per classroom in all schools. educational stages.
He has also referred to the “new and better educational infrastructures”, but has insisted on the “progressive” nature of the actions.
