The Minister of Education spoke this Thursday about the decision of the Generalitat of Catalonia to deploy in a small group of educational centers, most of them secondary schools. “What the Generalitat has to do is explain it so that it is understood,” said Milagros Tolón. The minister has avoided commenting on the underlying issue, arguing that she does not know “the fine print.”
His comment, which he made at an event organized by the Europa Press news agency in Madrid, seems to reflect the discomfort that the measure and the way of justifying it by the Government generate in the ministry, and at the same time the care with which it faces a controversy that affects one of the few autonomous communities governed by the socialists.
The controversy surrounding the measure continues, meanwhile, to increase in Catalonia, where, except for Vox and the PP, the rest of the parties opposed the initiative this Wednesday in the session of control of the Government in the Parliament. And four of the 14 educational centers chosen to participate in the pilot plan (three in Vic and another in L’Hospitalet). This Monday there were protest concentrations at the doors of two of them.
The Generalitat has assured that the introduction of mossos had been requested by the management of some institutes and that participation in the program will finally be optional. Sources from the centers that have voted against the measure claim, for their part, that it has been “imposed” on them.
The issue has once again occupied part of the parliamentary debate on the last day of the plenary session of the Parliament of Catalonia. Esquerra, Illa’s investiture partner, has once again requested his withdrawal, as he did on Wednesday. “It is symptomatic that the only parties that have applauded the proposal are PP and Vox,” said deputy Mar Besses.
In her speech, the Republican claimed that educational centers do not need police, but rather “more socio-educational professionals who understand the contexts of the students from proximity and trust with young people.” “When there are coexistence conflicts, what is required is not surveillance, but educational intervention,” he assured moments before the CUP also joined the request for withdrawal.
FP beach bars
The minister has also stressed that private Vocational Training centers must guarantee a minimum of face-to-face teaching, when their modality is onlinesomething especially important in those, such as healthcare, that provide access to regulated professions. And that all students must be guaranteed the completion of training internships in companies. Tolón has assured that the royal decree prepared by the Government does not go against private FP education (), but that the training cycles cannot be taught “in garages or in unconditioned areas”, and it cannot be allowed “for some centers to be authentic beach bars” that offer diplomas “without quality.”
Private vocational training centers must have a minimum size, the minister has outlined, with a minimum number of cycles in certain professional families, as well as teachers and management staff. The decree that will regulate it, he added, will not affect the private subsidized centers (which represent a small part of the total), with the argument that the autonomous communities, which are the ones that finance them, must guarantee their quality.
