The closure of educational groups begins to be primed with high school. In mid -February, the Department of Education. It is the first time that high school is more affected in children; A year ago, 57 less groups were announced in Infant and 31 in 1st of ESO. Education justifies it, mainly, in the decline of students due to the fall in birth, although for now the statistics question this version: last year there were 346,500 students in ESO, 2,000 more than a course back and 9,000 more than two years ago, as stated in education statistics. This would be explained by living enrollment, students who arrive in the middle of the course: only September at the beginning of February 12,000 new students had been incorporated at all stages.
This is precisely one of the arguments of families to oppose the announcement of the preventive closure of classrooms, since education performs a conservative forecast in the initial offer of places and after enrollment ends up expanding to respond to all demand. These days some of the centers affected by the loss of classrooms and in some cities such as Terrassa, Granollers or Mataró are already being known, protests are already occurring.
It is precisely the most controversial case known so far, since two groups of children and seven of 1 of ESO disappear (10% of the total of Catalonia), most in centers of maximum complexity. Especially the case of the Santa Eulàlia Institute, which loses the two groups of 1st of ESO because it begins from here to two years, according to its website. To compensate, only one group is created at the Can Jofresa Institute.
“It is a brutal public cut, while the concerted is maintained and also breaks the pact to reduce the ratios, so that the concerted will come out with an offer superior to the public,” Speles Tiago Ferreira, spokesman for the Pepeta, the AFA platform of the Public School of Terrassa. Ferreira rejects to justify classroom closure. “Terrassa is winning population and you have to count on the living enrollment, which are about 1,500 students who arrive in the middle of the course. In addition, statistics show that places are missing in the city, ”he adds.
In fact, three of the seven groups of what they disappear are the calls “mushrooms ” Enabled last year, that is, groups that open in a timely manner to respond to high demand and that this course, for now, are not offered. To protest the group cut, about 500 people, according to the Local Police, have demonstrated this Wednesday afternoon before the Municipal Schooling Office.
Terrassa is not the only city that will go outside to protest. This Thursday the families have also called a concentration before the City Council. In the capital of Maresme two classrooms have been scheduled less than I3 and three of that. Although it has been launched a reduction in generalized ratios and more accused of the one marked by the Generalitat, the city has not been able to avoid the disappearance of groups.
The families of the two affected schools -Rocafonda and Camí del MIG, both with high concentration of vulnerable students- qualify the announcement of “unexpected and unjustified” and regret that, the fact of knowing a few days before the start of the pre -registration “can condition the decline” the number of requests received by the center. They also consider that this puts the school project at risk. “We have the best facilities in the city, three libraries, a large patio, a powerful educational project and several innovation programs … It is not understood at the resources level,” says Jordi Esquerra, member of the Rocafonda AFA. Families also censor that the decision of high complexity, such as their own.
The Joan Soons school is especially concerned, because in March it will not open registrations for children3 and only students with older brothers in the center can be enrolled, which are seven. The families, who starred in a protest on Tuesday and have summoned another for this Thursday, consider that this implies an “undercover closure” of the center, since apart from not allowing new families to access, it will cause many current families to change school for fear. The department denies it. “We do this not to close it, it is a protection measure,” they say. And they add that if there are different families who want to sign up, the group will open, although initially the initial offer will be zero places. A few weeks ago, the Bofill Foundation for the lack of students.
But there are also cases in which the initial decision to close groups has been corrected, such as Lleida, where the local planning table decided in November the reduction of two I3 classrooms of the Alba and Espiga schools. Then, it was argued that maintaining the places with the demographic decrease would cause “an oversupply” that “weakened the centers with less demand” and that it would cause “the concentration of families with more resources in certain centers”, as recorded in the minutes of the meetings consulted by this newspaper. But due to the stir generated by the announcement, the table meets a month later and decides to “make a more exhaustive study” and in January it concludes to maintain all the groups of I3 public.
From the AFFAC they denounce that “the groups are being maintained at the concert at the cost of closing in the public.” “You have to protect the public, especially because where squares are left over,” defends its director Lidón Gasull, who also criticizes the fact that much of the affected centers are of maximum complexity. “Instead of making brave balanced schooling policies, what is being done is to reduce places in segregated schools. This is not a way to solve segregation. And in the end, vulnerable students in that neighborhood will be forced to move to other schools, ”says Gasull.
The USTEC union considers that “the public network is being dismantled” and asks that the decrease of students be used to reduce the ratios, also in that, where the classrooms are more massive.
Political anger
School group cuts are also generating a sour political anger, especially in Terrassa. The Councilor for Education, Patricia Reche, questions the data of the department: “They say that there is low birth and an overoferta, but that does not conform to the reality of Terrassa, since we have a lot of living enrollment and there are planned population growth shortly in several areas of the city.” Despite being aware of the closures since the end of November, the City Council has not publicly spoken against until a few days ago, after the local AFAs and the media published the affected centers. Reche justifies it in the “institutional loyalty” and that they expected the publication of the minutes, “that do not reflect the real debates and says that there is an agreement, but it is not so.” However, the councilor also admits that the controversy has taken the local government “in a moment of change” (three different education councilors in less than two years). For its part, Education rules out to argue on the subject, but remember that the minutes are elaborated by technicians.
In Mataró, it has also caused a particular political controversy, since at first, the Councilor for Education, Bea Delgado, justified and supported the measure of the closure of lines by the birth decrease. But after the protests of the families, the local government (PSC) has taken a 180 degree turn and has sent a letter to the Generalitat asking to rethink the decision.
