The indefinite strike of teachers in Madrid begins with the cutting of the Castellana and pickets at the doors of the centers

The Madrid teachers' strike began this Wednesday with informational pickets in many of the centers, the blocking of Paseo de la Castellana by early childhood educators and a lockdown of students at the Complutense University of Madrid.

65,000 non-university teachers who teach more than 666,000 students in the region are called to the indefinite strike, called by CC OO, UGT, STEM, CNT and Solidaridad Obrera, in addition to other groups and teaching platforms. In the absence of the unions and the Community of Madrid finishing collecting data, the impression of the teachers and directors consulted by EL PAÍS is that the monitoring is being "greater than in previous strikes" and especially high in the south and the capital, says Rosa Rocha, president of the association of directors of public institutes of Madrid. “Among the students, the monitoring is massive,” adds Rocha.

Charo Fernández, a teacher in Alcorcón, who is on minimal services at her institute, assures that the monitoring is “very high.” “We are having to serve several groups at the same time,” he adds. José Luis Muñoz, a Mathematics teacher in Rivas-Vaciamadrid, estimates that “between 70% and 80%” of his institute are on strike, and that basically only first and second year ESO students have gone, for whom jurisprudence still does not allow them to go on strike. “We are officials who are quite mistreated by the Community of Madrid,” adds Muñoz, who is prepared to strike “for quite some time.”

There are centers, such as the República de Venezuela public school, in Madrid, where the monitoring is “100% discounting the minimum services,” says Javier Becerra, head of education at UGT. At the Ceipso picket line (which ranges from kindergarten to secondary school) Loyola de Palacio, in the Madrid district of Villa de Vallecas, Natalia Cabello, 34, summarized the lack of resources that public education suffers from: “You die from the heat and you die from the cold,” she emphasizes. “I have had students take exams with gloves.”

The six main demands of the unions are: reduce class hours per week in secondary school to 17 and to 22 in preschool and primary school (from 19 and 25 hours, respectively); lower the ratios of students per class, increasing the personnel specialized in attention to diversity; tackle the socioeconomic segregation of students between the public and subsidized networks; increase teachers' salaries by 600 euros per month; reduce bureaucratic burden and improve educational infrastructure.