95% of the approximately 43,000 teachers who participated in the union consultation rejected the agreement signed between Educació, UGT and CCOO, on a day of strike and protest in Girona that once again brought teachers to the streets. The mobilization, called by USTEC STES, Professors de Secundària, La Intersindical and CGT, gathered thousands of people in different points around the city before converging in front of the Serveis Territorials d'Educació.
The conveners demanded more resources to address diversity, lower ratios, less bureaucracy, consensual curricula, and the recovery of lost purchasing power. During the protest, the teachers charged against a pact that they consider insufficient and far from the problems that, they assure, they face daily in the classrooms.
Columns from Salt, Sarrià de Ter, l'Avellaneda and Fontajau
The day started in Salt with a slow vehicle march promoted by teachers and professors from the municipality under the slogan "let's get up early and make ourselves heard". The entourage circulated along the C 65 to the Mas Gri roundabout, where it linked up with columns coming from Sarrià de Ter and the l'Avellaneda neighborhood of Girona.
A third block left from the Fontajau pavilion car park. In that group also participated doctors and Revolta Pagesa, with about thirty tractors. From there they headed to the AP 7 at the height of Sant Gregori, where 1,400 people, including teachers and farmers, cut off the highway in both directions.
After those actions, all the columns ended up converging before the headquarters of the Territorial Education Services in Girona, epicenter of the protest during the rest of the morning.
Discrepancy in attendance and rejection of the pact
The demonstration gathered about 10,000 people, according to the convening unions. The Municipal Police and the Mossos d'Esquadra lowered the figure to 4,000. Despite that difference, the call once again highlighted the discontent in an important part of the educational sector in the Girona regions.
Among the participants, the agreement was described as "insufficient" and some protesters argued that it is a comfortable solution that does not correct the structural problems of public school.
Complaints about attention to diversity, bureaucracy and the loss of level
"Of 25 students we have in a classroom, 15 need individualized attention because they are autistic, have an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia or have just arrived and do not understand Catalan" - Mònica Martínez, teacher at Forallac school in Vulpellac
The teacher maintained that the situation in classrooms has deteriorated in recent years. She also warned of a drop in learning and in the students' capacity for expression, especially when the teaching staff does not have sufficient support to address very different realities at the same time.
"Many students, as it is unfeasible to be able to impart the corresponding knowledge in classrooms, are training themselves at home with artificial intelligence tools, especially in Secondary Education" - Àngel García, teacher at Els Estanys school in Platja d'Aro
Another teacher from Palafrugell, who asked to remain anonymous, insisted that the conflict goes far beyond salary. She argued that, before earning more, she prefers to be able to attend to her students with the dignity they deserve and assured that the collective is more united than ever.
There was also support from families. A mother from Girona explained that she wanted to convey to her children the meaning of the strike and the demands of the teaching staff, because she believes that the quality of the educational system also directly affects parents and involves having more teachers and more resources to address diversity.
Among the attendees was Magda Noguera, a retired teacher who arrived from Camprodon, who summarized the discomfort over the increase in diversity, the reduction of resources, the bureaucratic burden, and the lack of support from the Department of Education.
Professional burnout was another constant of the protest. A teacher from Girona who requested anonymity stated that he chose the profession out of vocation, but that now he would not recommend it to anyone. He reported feeling helpless by the Department, criticized that inclusion is not applied in practice and regretted dedicating more time to filling out forms and tracking sheets than to preparing classes and being with students.
"At 22 years old I'm already burnt out, and I haven't even been paid yet" - Anna Mir, intern student at the Domeny school in Girona
The student intern described an increasingly complex task due to the increase of students with special needs in the classroom and due to the lack of homogeneous resources to attend to them. In her judgment, under those conditions it is impossible to follow the pace of the class with normality.
New day of strike and protest in Barcelona
The strike in Girona's educational centers will continue the next day. The mobilization will then move to Barcelona with a unitary demonstration alongside teachers from all demarcations, in a new day of pressure against an agreement that a large part of the teaching staff continues to reject and that, at least for now, has not managed to de-escalate the conflict.