A total of 1,343 addresses of public educational centers in Lleida and throughout Catalonia have sent a manifesto to the President of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Salvador Illa, the Minister of Education, Esther Niubó, and the parliamentary groups to demand structural changes in the educational system.
The document rejects the Mossos d'Esquadra entering secondary schools as educational agents or mediators within the pilot plan of the Department of Education. The managements maintain that the school is asking for more social and educational staff while the Administration proposes to reinforce police presence.
Managements ask for fixed social support and reject police mediation in secondary schools
The collective defends that educational and security functions must be clearly separated within the centers. In their opinion, normalizing police presence in schools undermines the authority of teachers and stigmatizes the educational community.
Furthermore, the manifesto calls for a fixed allocation of social integration and social education staff in all teams. This allocation, the managements add, should be adjusted to the real complexity of each center.
They also propose strengthening social commissions with representatives from community health and with social technicians. In the same vein, they propose consolidating the Welcome Classrooms for six or more students to facilitate the integration of newly arrived students.
Manifesto links changes to PISA decline and demands reaching 6% of GDP
The claim is also supported by the evolution of educational results. The managements link the need for these changes to the decline recorded in the PISA 2022 report and call for a review of the Inclusive School Decree to check if the lack of resources prevents its effective application.
On the budgetary level, the document demands that educational investment reach 6% of the GDP provided for in the Catalan Education Law. The manifesto's objective is for this economic reinforcement to serve to replace police plans with a network of socio-educational support in public centers.
The managements have set June 19 as the deadline for the Government to formalize a budgetary commitment with these measures.