The family associations support the demands that have led teachers to strike, despite the bother than logistically of family implies a call for a strike of no less than five days. “For the families, the strike is a stress and a problem of conciliation. It affects us, of course, and it is not the best thing for us, but we cannot be against it,” he says. Lluís Vila, president of Fapaes. “We have to be next to the teachers. They don’t ask for anything extraordinary,” she adds. In the same line, Lidón Gasull, president of the aFFa associationc, warns that although they have not asked their associated families to actively support the strike, they do share the concerns and motivations of the teachers.
In the point of view of families, as in that of unions and center directors, the Minister of Education, Josep Gonzàlez-Cambray. “The Department of Education deserved a strike,” says Gasull, who considers that Cambray has lacked the respect for the educational community. “The Department has gone its own way on many important issues for public education. It is time that Cambray really sit down to talk and negotiate with the educational community”, claims the president of aFFac. Dialogue, resources and inclusive school They are the three axes on which, like the directors of the public centers that have stood up to the Department’s management, aFFac emphasizes.
“The Department has to change its way of proceeding. It cannot be that it explains things after the last ball,” Vila also stresses. “First you have to talk to the educational community, and then make decisions,” adds the president of Fapaes, an entity that supports the idea of the new calendar and the advance start of the school year. “We like the idea, but it has to be talked about, not done hastily and without thinking everything through,” he points out. Vila applies the same to the new resumes: “We like music but we have to fine-tune the chords.”
Fapaes understands the state of mind of teachers and directors, who are “very stressed” and supports “100%” the demand for more “economic and human” resources. Resources to attend, for example, the student mental health. “We get messages from teachers who say they have never seen the deterioration of students’ mental and emotional health before,” explains Vila, who urges Educació to “be alert and allocate resources to this area.”
The emphasis that the directors of public centers have made, which have joined the strike day of 15-M, in demanding resources to deploy the Inclusive School decree, approved in 2017, is a reason for hope for families with children with special needs. “It gives us hope. This decree is approved and stopped. The Síndic de Greuges made a report on the deficiencies that existed months ago and nobody has been scandalized,” he explains. Naomi Font, teacher and mother of a girl with spina bifida who has made her an activist in defense of inclusive schools. “Cambray always talks about equity. How can she if she has the inclusive decree stopped?” She asks herself, indignant.
And he takes the opportunity to underline that “in Catalan public schools there is discrimination on the grounds of disability”. “How can it be that a child with special needs does not have support to participate in an outing or excursion? Or that he is invited not to stay in the dining room because there are no resources,” she asks. So Font has received with satisfaction that the directors of the centers put on the table an important issue that education in Catalonia has: the deployment of the Inclusive School decree.
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From aFFac they are not very clear what the families will do in the three days of strike called this week (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday). “There will be a bit of everything. There will be families that will not take their children to school and others that will. We are receiving many questions about minimum services.”
The minimum services set by the Department of Labor are as follows: in infant, primary and ESO there will be one teacher for every 3 classrooms. There must be 50% of the staff in the reception, dining room and after-school service. And in nurseries and special education schools, 50% of the staff must be operational.