Before the Education Sector Conference that is held on Wednesday, August 25, the CCOO Teaching Federation (FECCOO) necessary for a safe return to schools in health, and to guarantee educational quality and the strengthening of equity.
The reduction of ratios has proven to be, how could it be otherwise, an enormously effective measure to improve educational quality and is essential not only to ensure safety and health, but also to correct previous deficiencies in the system and those that arose due to the pandemic, especially for the most vulnerable students.
The Government’s commitment to face-to-face attendance , expressed days ago by the Minister of Education, means maintaining and increasing the number of hiring for teaching staff and other professional profiles to support teaching and families by at least 40,000. the ratio below 20 students per classroom, strengthen prevention against occupational hazards and increase health protocols in the educational community. This bet requires investment and a plan agreed upon by all educational administrations.
A reversal in the conditions of schooling of students and work of teachers, as suggested by some regional governments, means that we have not learned anything from the pandemic and, above all, that administrations have not stopped to make a rigorous reflection on the weaknesses of the education system that were exposed by COVID-19.
On the other hand, for FECCOO, the application and development of the LOMLOE will not be feasible if it goes back to a situation prior to confinement due to the pandemic and does not work to strengthen and expand investment, improve the organization of the centers, introduce new methodologies work, vary the sense of evaluation, make an intelligent use of technologies by integrating them into the educational project, achieve stabilization of temporary staff and change the initial training of teachers, as well as reorient permanent training that must go hand in hand with pedagogical innovation and the needs and challenges present in the day-to-day teaching work.
The practical demonstration that resources in the educational field can be increased in the face of a situation as dramatic as the current one should be interpreted by the Ministry and the educational administrations as an opportunity to permanently strengthen the educational system, increasing resources and staff in other concepts, such as attention to diversity, expanding the public educational offer in all stages and teachings, and improving the conditions of teachers: reduction of their teaching hours (up to a maximum of 18 teaching hours in Secondary, VET and Special Regime and 23, in Infant and Primary), ensure employment and the stability of the workforce, speed up access to A1 for VET teachers, promote recognition and professional careers in the entire teaching group and the improvement of their working conditions.
The Ministry of Education and Vocational Training should be the one to lead, through legislation and in the Sector Conference, the articulation of all these measures to improve the educational system.