Around 50 fathers and mothers together with their preschool children cut off traffic this Monday afternoon on Sant Francesc street in Tarragona to demand, before the territorial services of the Departament d"Educació, that next academic year there be public I3 places for all children who request them.
The mobilization was called by the Plataforma Més Places Públiques I3 TGN and gave continuity to the protests of recent weeks and also to the municipal motion promoted in this same debate. The action was carried out when the pre-registration process has already closed and families are waiting to know in the coming hours the lottery number, a step that will begin to draw the result of the assignments.
The families demand to expand the public offer
The core of the claim involves modifying the initial offer and opening new places based on the demand registered during pre-registration. Families believe that, with the data already closed, the educational administration must adjust the planning for the next academic year to prevent part of the student body from being left out of the public network.
"That it fulfills what was promised and opens new places according to the demand registered in the pre-registration" - Sandra Burillo, mobilized mother
Burillo claimed that the Departament d"Educació act now that the real volume of applications is already known. The protest sought precisely to pressure at that moment of the calendar, before the allocations are channeled by the draw.
Concern about the loss of lines
Among the voices present at the concentration was also that of Montse Foguet, a school teacher, who warned about the situation at her center. For now, the Pràctiques will have one less line, a reduction that, in her opinion, further complicates access to public school.
Foguet also assured that he rules out being able to enroll his daughter in that same center because the 20 points awarded to families working in the selected area are insufficient. That circumstance, he maintained, leaves some families in a position of clear disadvantage within the process.
Union warning about a double educational network
The afternoon mobilization came after union representatives of education in Tarragona warned in the morning about the consolidation of a double educational network. Their diagnosis points to a model that, far from being provisional, structurally favors private subsidized centers to the detriment of public schools.
That notice connects with the discomfort expressed by the families gathered in Sant Francesc, who fear that the lack of public places in I3 will end up pushing part of the student body towards options that were not their first choice. Attention is now focused on the draw and on whether Educació makes a move in time to expand the offer before the allocation of places is practically decided.