The president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, has once again demanded that teachers who this Tuesday will begin the school year with a new day of strike also "respect" the right to education and mobility. For this reason, he has asked them to take a "parenthesis" in their protests to face a "serious debate" about the education model in Catalonia, and has announced a new program with which he intends to put an end to the excessive heat that students face in schools.
In an interview on TV3 and Catalunya Ràdio, Illa admitted that in this open conflict with the teachers "surely we could have done things better" but, at the same time, she defended that "no one has put more resources than this Government (2.5 billion)". Now, "the purpose is to open a debate about what education we want for the country" and for that, "the Government has an open hand" and "will dedicate resources."
But the president also wanted to make it clear that respect for the right to strike must be compatible with the right to education and mobility, which is why he has asked, as councilor Esther Niubó did, "a parenthesis" in the strike, "to talk and see what resources are needed for everything." Those who know this best are the teachers; Families in Catalonia have the right for their children to be educated, and I ask for respect for this right and for mobility. But above all for the right to education."
Now, Illa has insisted that "we must be clear about the starting point", and that is why she recalled that "when I arrived, the teachers were the third lowest paid, now they are the third best paid" in Spain. Furthermore, "we have increased the reception classrooms, we have dedicated more resources than anyone..." And now it is about talking about the education model of Catalonia", that is, inclusive education, infrastructure, autonomy of centers, resources, evaluation... In short, Illa has called for "a serious debate."
The head of the Government has also announced a plan for air conditioning of schools that will be worked on with the town councils and will be extended to residences. At the moment, the Executive is "studying" different avenues of collaboration with private companies to carry out this adaptation, but the problem is major, since in Catalonia, a quarter of the educational centers are before 1965 and have deficiencies in their infrastructure, as the president has admitted.
Illa's words have provoked a reaction from her investiture allies. The most important, Esquerra, has attacked the Government for having "gone on vacation" without resolving the problem facing the school "so that on the first day of the school year the children, families and teachers of our schools are consumed." The party's spokesperson, Elisenda Alamany, has called on the socialist Executive to "stop trailing behind the problems of our society." In his opinion, this "is a Government that lets problems pass, that lets them rot, that entrenches them", but "the problems are still on the Government's table", he lamented.
Alamany has insisted on his criticism of the socialists by recalling that "those who appeared in the elections proclaiming that they were the champions of management are only accumulating management problems that affect the daily lives of families." "We ask that they stop boasting about their management and get to work," because "they have had all summer to resolve an educational crisis and we face a new strike tomorrow," he claimed.
The Republican leader regretted that the president's words this Monday regarding the educational crisis could have been said before the summer and recalled that her party has given support to the Government to approve budgets with which it should be able to face this problem as well as an update of the educational model so that the middle and working classes believe in the public education system, which is, as she said, the great challenge facing the Catalan system.
Also from Comuns, spokesperson Gerardo Pisarello has also replied to Illa, that it is not enough to ask for a truce from the educational community and has demanded "concrete facts", with a "clear schedule" of the pending measures, that actions be activated and a "real dialogue" with the workers. The leader, the current situation represents a "failure" of the Government.
Junts, the main opposition party, has also reproached the president and the Government for having achieved something "unusual", such as ending the last academic year with a strike and starting the new one with another strike. The president of the post-convergent parliamentary group, Mònica Sales, has concluded that "this is not bad luck, it is bad management" because "Councillor Niubó has not lifted a finger" all summer. "We do not understand why President Illa has not led this crisis from day one," he explained, and reproached him for now asking for a hiatus in the strike when "the only hiatus has been this month of August in which President Illa has not managed this issue."
"As if that were not enough, the Government has wanted to falsely close the PISA testing scandal despite the fact that we have requested on several occasions that they appear in Parliament," Sales criticized. "It is not enough to scapegoat or turn the page, it is a matter of knowing the truth, of clarifying all responsibilities and of adopting all the necessary measures so that negligence of this nature does not occur again," he demanded.
Like ERC, the leader of Junts has regretted that the Government "lets the problems accumulate and explode", which is why she has demanded from the president "a profound remodeling" of the Executive because "the Government does not work", and to "stand before Madrid". "Enough of non-compliance, submission and acting as a PSOE delegate in Catalonia," Sales claimed.
Junts has proposed a "country agreement" around education in Catalonia and Sales has announced that its formation has an agreement - with formations that it did not mention - for the celebration of a monographic plenary session on education around October 20 in the Parliament.
