SCHOOLS across Spain will be on strike on Thursday, March 9 in a bid to pressure the government into scrapping the unpopular education reform, known as the LOMCE, and giving them a 'clear plan' for their recently-discussed 'Education Pact'.
Protests will be staged by Spain's major unions, the CCOO, UGT and CGT, and teaching union, the STES, together with the Student Front, Students in Movement, the Union of Students and FAEST, along with the State Confederation of PTAs and the platform Pedagogical Renewal.
The PTA Confederation, CEAPA, says it wants the government to withdraw what it calls an 'unacceptable' appeal to the Constitutional Court against the implanting of legislation aimed at halting the application of the LOMCE.
The LOMCE, introduced by former education minister José Ignacio Wert, has been slammed by schools across the country as a method of 'weeding out' weaker students at a very early age, effectively splitting Spain's young adults into 'top academic hopefuls' and 'factory fodder', thus condemning late bloomers, or highly-intelligent pupils who do not flourish under the mainstream school system, to a life of low-qualified menial jobs when they may, with the right help, have been capable of going to university.
It has also been slammed as rigid, right-wing, pro-Catholic, and strongly memory-based with no room for critical thinking skills, with exam grades taking priority over the quality of coursework and other aspects of the education system.
Schools were ordered to change their syllabus, teaching methods and set books to incorporate the LOMCE by September 2016, but most regions refused to do so, saying they had not had enough time.
Funding cuts in education have, at the same time, led to much larger classroom sizes and teachers being made redundant.
The CEAPA says Spain's schools need a solid and consistent approach to education immediately, and has criticised the European Union's orders for the national government to cut funding in the system even further in a bid to meet its debt targets, when in fact, education at all levels needs plenty more money rather than less.
