The collective of early childhood education technicians who work in aggregated rural schools has denounced a situation of labor precariousness, legal fraud, and institutional detriment in several centers in Catalonia, with special incidence in the demarcation of Girona, where the group is formed by about 50 professionals. In the whole of the Catalan territory, the collective gathers about 200 TEEI.
The workers maintain that they are hired as support staff despite developing direct and continuous educational tasks within the classrooms. They assure that this situation places them in a lower labor and salary position than that of other professionals who perform equivalent functions in nursery schools of the Departament d'Educació.
They denounce functions that do not correspond to their category
Among the tasks they expose as improper for their category are the monitoring of dining room, dormitory and stays, in addition to the programming, development and educational evaluation of groups I1 and I2. The collective considers that these functions go beyond the contractual fit with which they have been incorporated.
The professionals estimate at about 800 gross euros per month the salary difference compared to the educators of the nursery schools of the Departament d'Educació. That gap, they point out, remains even if the qualification is the same and the daily work is comparable.
"We have exactly the same qualification but we earn 800 euros less for doing the same job; furthermore, they have better facilities and are tutors of a single group, while we have I1 and I2 children mixed, that is, children who don't yet walk with others who already run and talk" - early childhood education technician from a rural school in Ripollès
Lack of substitutions and difficulties in the day-to-day
Another of the points that the collective places at the center of the complaint is the lack of substitutions when a worker takes medical leave. The TEEI warn that this absence of relief directly impacts the care within classrooms that, in some cases, have a capacity of between 10 and 13 children.
They also question the type of support they receive when they need reinforcement. They explain that, on occasions, a teacher from the center is sent without specific training to attend to children of these ages in basic care matters.
"One of the things that worries us most is that, when we need support, the Departament d'Educació sends us a school teacher who doesn't know how to change diapers or deal with children" - early childhood education technician from Girona
They demand changes to the Departament d'Educació
The collective asks the Departament d'Educació for a salary and professional category equalization, in addition to a clear definition of functions to prevent them from being assigned responsibilities they consider unrelated to their position. It also demands immediate substitutions in case of leave to guarantee the continuity of the service and adequate attention to minors in aggregated rural schools.
The claim puts the focus on a model of operation that, in the opinion of these professionals, is sustained by understaffed workforces and with a labor classification that does not correspond to the real tasks they perform every day in the classrooms.