The pilot test by the Generalitat to deploy plainclothes Mossos d'Esquadra agents in institutes in Catalonia was launched yesterday, with six centers in Lleida included in the plan, amid criticism from part of the educational community due to the lack of information about its application.
In the consulted Lleida institutes, the day passed without visible changes. From these centers it was reported that no agent attended within the framework of the plan to ensure coexistence, despite the formal start of the measure promoted by the Govern.
Rejection in several schools of Lleida
The opposition to the plan became visible in different municipalities. In Tàrrega, the Manuel de Pedrolo institute appeared with posters from the CGT union with the slogan "Let's end the police presence in schools". Similar messages were also seen in Bellpuig.
At the Alfons Costafreda institute and at the Lo Pla d'Urgell institute, both in Bellpuig, posters from the same union appeared with drawings of pistols and a console controller, along with the same phrase rejecting police presence in educational centers.
Concern among teachers
Several teachers have warned that the presence of a mosso within the school environment can generate distrust, stigmatization and a feeling of surveillance among students and teachers. The main criticism focuses on the lack of prior details on how the pilot test should be deployed and what its real scope would be in the affected high schools.
Even so, teachers from the affected centers asked for calm and remarked that the Govern's plan does not alter the activity of the centers, at least in this start. The feeling in the Lleida institutes included in the test is that the start of the measure did not have, for now, a practical translation in the day-to-day of the classrooms.
Official presentation scheduled for today
The Councillor of Education, Esther Niubó, is scheduled to present the measure today. Meanwhile, the debate remains open in the educational community, with opposing positions on the fit of police presence in high schools and on the way the plan has been communicated.
On the political level, the PP showed itself favorable to the proposal provided that an agreement is reached with the educational community. The deployment, at least on this first day in Lleida, started with protest in some centers and without a trace of agents in the consulted institutes.