“Educational transformation begins by making things happen”

The ‘conseller’ of Education, Josep González-Cambray, has revolutionized the educational community with its advance announcement of the start of the next school year 2022-23. A course already marked by the new competency curricula, which involve from infant, primary and ESO to Baccalaureate, by the commitment to FP, the plans to promote the use of Catalan in schools and by the execution of the TSJC ruling on the Spanish in the classrooms.

The announcement of the new school calendar has caught the educational community by surprise. Why hasn’t it been debated before in the School Council?

It was a highly claimed issue by society. It is a measure that favors vulnerable students, it is a measure of territorial equality and that facilitates family reconciliation. The teachers win, because they will have more hours of coordination in September. The addresses of the centers also win because the structural template will be named a month before.

Teachers, families and unions regret that the issue did not go through the School Council before.

After collecting as much information as possible and listening informally to the educational community, we have made this decision and we will soon inform all agents. The order of the calendar is not only the schedule. There is much more information. And this will be shared in the School Council.

The intensive day from 09:00 to 13:00 in September has also been a questioned aspect.

Yes, but it is important to say that the students will have the same schedule. The dining room service is maintained until 3:30 p.m. And since we have decided that this should be the case, it will be the Department that will cover all the expenses of the leisure activities that the centers carry out from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Schools come from a stage of maximum tension due to the pandemic. They have ahead of them the application of the new curricula, the plan to promote Catalan and the execution of the sentence of the TSJC. Was this the right time for this change?

As ‘conseller’ of Education I have proposed to make an ambitious transformation of the Catalan educational system with the horizon of 2030. This transformation involves making things happen, by making decisions to move towards that real, structured transformation that reaches all centers. Big changes cannot be made overnight. Since they cannot be done from one day to the next, what you have to do is start the journey. And sometimes you have to start the journey even if the best circumstances don’t happen because if not, you don’t make things happen. That said, big changes always meet a point of resistance. They are the first reactions. It is normal. But I am convinced that the goodness and importance of a measure like this will soon be seen. We have to be able to make decisions and make things happen.

Schools now also have the challenge of applying the new curricula.

It is the first time that we open a participatory process in the preparation of curricula, because we want to listen to the educational community. Therefore, we are before a draft. Everything can change with contributions. The curriculum has two challenges: evaluation and competency learning. The educational transformation has come to stay. The centers will be able to go at different speeds, as they are now, but we will give them instruments to advance towards that transformative learning.

There are educators and teachers who maintain that the competency model has less content and the level is lower.

We listen to everyone. But we cannot keep the same school as years ago. We must be capable of learning knowledge, of course, but also of learning to do. I really like a Confucius quote because I think life works like this: ‘They told me and I forgot; I saw and understood; I did it and I learned it’. A bit of the educational system is like that. We always learn by doing. And that is why work by projects, by areas, by skills.

The teaching staff is restless before all the training that lies ahead. How will this training be planned?

In teacher training we have two challenges. The first is that there is a lot of diversification when it comes to training. We have to focus on what is really important and essential. The second challenge is to make the training really useful, contextualized even according to each educational center. That the centers propose what they need and make a more tailored training.

Emotional education is one of the important ideas of the new curricula. How will it materialize in the classroom?

In the coming weeks, together with the Department of Health, we will promote an emotional thermometer to find out how our children and young people are. Starting in 5th grade, we will give all students a questionnaire to find out how they are doing. We will ask them, for example, about addictions, about the habits they have or about relationships with peers. The survey will be anonymous but from these results, we will have a diagnosis. The idea is to make this information available to the centers so that they can make the best decisions in each situation.

Will this emotional formation be worked on in the classrooms, or through the counselors?

The idea of ​​the competency education system is that this learning be transversal, that it not focus only on tutoring or with a counselor. It is about all teachers having instruments to accompany students, to give young people resources that allow them to face the various situations that life will bring them.

Will there be more guides?

There will be more guides. This course we have already increased the workforce by 101 emotional support workers also linked to guidance. We are committed to student orientation, in ESO, in Baccalaureate and we incorporate it into the FP that until now there was not. We’ll see how we just adjusted it.

The development of the inclusive school decree is another pending signature.

We will only have an inclusive school when all students are accompanied by the resources they need. We have to be able to see the inclusive school as a need for schooling. Every year we increase the budget. But every year there is more detection. Most are covered but it is true that there are cases that are not covered as it should. And this we have to be able to say. The step we must take is that all the students who arrive at a center do so with the resource they need. We’re making progress here. We are doing a study to detect all the needs and make a schedule of the necessary resources. There will be an increase in resources.

He has made the flag of the bet for the FP. Will there be no chaos with the squares this year?

We learn from experience. This year, we have advanced the pre-registration for continuing students. And for the first time, all 4th ESO students will be guaranteed a place in intermediate grade cycles in the specialty they request. In addition, for the first time, we will systematize the needs of the labor market to adapt the offer as much as possible.

VET centers suffer from a lack of teachers.

We find specific cases, it is true. We struggle to find substitutes for specific professional families. We have a job bank and we make regular calls.

Natural ventilation due to the pandemic has triggered the energy expenditure of schools. Is there an energy sustainability plan planned?

Yes. The new buildings already have a sustainability plan. In the rest, we are going to carry out many actions to improve energy efficiency. And it is planned to provide photovoltaic panels to all the centers. Work is already under way to establish a calendar and the corresponding resources.

In what state is the development of the regulatory framework to protect the Catalan school?

I can’t advance when it will be. This framework must have political, social and pedagogical consensus.

Does it separate it from the execution of the judgment of the TSJC?

We do what we said we would do before sentencing. A regulatory framework to protect Catalan. A diagnosis of what is happening in the classrooms, where Spanish is already present. Learning languages ​​is not about percentages, it’s about pedagogy. The sentence is so absurd that it is even based on a repealed law.

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We are once again facing a surreal attack by the courts, who want to attack the independence movement with events that have not happened. El Brot has been authorized to open as a special education center since the 93-94 academic year. I, as general director of public centers, had nothing to do with the concerts. And now as ‘conseller’, since this center has had a concert since 93-94. We will provide all the reports and files that you request.