The Parliament will debate this week, starting today, the state of education in Catalonia, with downward indicators on all fronts and a community of teachers disaffected by the Administration.
The situation is worrying. The performance of Catalan students is falling, reaching levels of ten years ago and placing itself behind Spain and Europe. Political parties are aware of the need to find solutions. The socialist Salvador Illa was the first to pronounce the word 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 hold in other forces in view of internal and external evaluations.
The change of person in charge in the department, now led by Anna Simó, and the possibility of a conservative government coming to power in Spain (that changes language or coeducation policies, for example) can help unite the main political forces of Parliament around a pact for education with two aspects: specific objectives of educational improvement 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 various parties due to the anger in the Barcelona City Council also influences. But there seems to be a consensus on the idea that political noise should not distract from what constitutes an opportunity to strengthen long-term consensus.
The monographic plenary session, requested by Junts, was scheduled for Tuesday, June 13, as a disapproval of Josep Gonzàlez-Cambray, but his dismissal, the day before, and the appointment of Anna Simó, left it postponed for two weeks. During this time, the agenda of the new manager has been hectic in order to regain confidence. She has met with parliamentary groups, unions, the Catalan School Council, with the center management and with the municipal associations. She sent a letter to all the teachers: “We are going to change things, I need your complicity.”
In an interview with TV3, just the day the school year ended -which, through oppositions, gives him a break until September-, Simó explained that he is going to immerse himself in the data to make decisions, some “surgical”, depending on from where the wound oozes the most. “We will not cheat solitaire,” he assured.
The drop in skills affects all students (mathematics, Catalan, English). Reading comprehension has dropped again. It already went down in 2016, but no action was taken then or now. A reading plan will be presented in July. However, the indicator that places us at levels of underdeveloped countries is that of school dropout (students from 18 to 24 years old without studies after ESO). Europe sets the target for Spain at 10% and it exceeds it by almost four points. Catalonia is at 16.9%. The pandemic is one of the justifications for these indicators, but the minister must explain why they fall more in Catalonia than in the rest of the Spanish autonomies.
The proposed pact for education that the PSC will defend includes a series of ambitious proposals to reduce school dropout and improve grades with a plan that reduces the number of students with low skills to less than 15% and raises those with high skills to 40 %. Measures from years ago are rescued such as the sixth hour in some public centers and the reinstatement of the Personalitzat School Support, promoted by the Minister Irene Rigau, which offered lagging students extra time to reinforce knowledge. In addition, they insist on English and the reinforcement of Catalan, as well as on the inclusive school (an economic item of 100 million is urgently needed for the next academic year, plus specialized personnel, and a psychologist in each institute).
These aspects are also collected by Junts, which will open today’s plenary session and which will also include support measures for disadvantaged students and the promotion of inclusive schools. In Comú Podem, for their part, in addition to academic aspects, they urge improvements in vocational training and air conditioning in the centers. For ERC, a consensus against bullying and attacks on the linguistic model is also a priority.
The minister has already advanced that she will defend a “country pact” for the prevention of abandonment, closely linked to social inequality, which 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 Balearic Islands on the school language model and the reduction of the presence of Catalan in the centers.
