Some 4,500 people demonstrated in Girona in a new protest by the educational sector of the Girona region almost two months after the mobilization of March 19, when farmers and doctors joined in support of teachers. The discontent remains open among teachers, educators, counselors, and social integration technicians.
The protest once again brought to the table a contradiction that the group has been repeating for weeks. While teachers demand more resources, less bureaucracy, better salaries, and lower ratios, the infiltration of two Mossos d'Esquadra agents into a teachers' assembly in Barcelona and the plan for plainclothes police to patrol high schools have aggravated the anger in the schools.
The Coordinator of Educational Assemblies of the Girona region called for a rally in Plaça Catalunya in Girona and a subsequent march to the headquarters of the Generalitat de Catalunya. During the march, attendees carried umbrellas and signs with slogans in favor of more resources and against the increase in administrative workload.
The march brought together 4,500 people between Plaça Catalunya and the headquarters of the Generalitat
Among the banners, messages against the police presence in high schools also appeared. Slogans such as "Less batons, more educators, TIS and counselors" could be read at the protest, as well as calls for resignation directed at Irene Rigau, Josep Gonzàlez Cambray, and Ernest Maragall Bargalló.
Isaac Bueso, a secondary school teacher at the Coll i Rodés institute in Lloret de Mar, attended with a funeral wreath with the slogan "RIP public education."
"Given the situation we are in, education is in the process of dying." - Isaac Bueso, secondary school teacher, Coll i Rodés institute in Lloret de Mar
The discontent was not limited to a symbolic complaint. Some of the protesters focused their complaints on the lack of staff to support diversity within the classroom and on the conditions under which they work in municipalities such as Bonmatí, Anglès, Amer, Blanes, or Banyoles.
Teachers from Bonmatí, Blanes, and Banyoles reported overcrowded classrooms and lack of support
Mercè, a religion teacher at the Sant Jordi school in Bonmatí who also works in Anglès and Amer, described the pressure that some groups are under due to the concentration of students with special educational needs.
"It cannot be that, in a classroom of 25 students, there are 15 with special educational needs. We ask for general improvements to the entire system, especially resources to attend to diversity." - Mercè, religion teacher, Sant Jordi de Bonmatí school
From Blanes, Alba Rams, a teacher at the Quatre Vents school, linked the collective's rejection of the police response to the lack of improvements for teachers. Her criticism pointed to the contrast between the police salary increase and the lack of raises for teachers.
Rams argued that conflicts in schools should be addressed through education and not repression. In Banyoles, Jordi Riera, a teacher of intermediate and higher vocational training cycles at the Josep Brugulat institute, summarized the sector's distrust of the political class by stating that no one believes in education, regardless of party affiliation.
Núria Heras, a teacher at the same Josep Brugulat institute, detailed that students with special needs arrive in 4th year of ESO without support from caregivers. She also warned that vocational training workshops are saturated and sometimes operate with dangerous tools, a combination that, in her account, complicates daily work in courses marked by practical application.
At the Girona demonstration, four demands were repeated again on the protest signs, in the same format as the protest had followed since its beginning, more resources, less bureaucracy, higher salaries, and lower student-teacher ratios.