In Madrid Plaza de la Opera is completely invaded by people arriving from every corner of the square. It is easy to recognize them because of the green T-shirts they wear. Madrilenian teachers do not give up. Each of them has a chair and a notepad. As a form of protest against the state education cuts imposed by the Comunidad de Madrid which, according to Labour Unions, will axe around 3000 jobs and increase working hours (from 18 to 20), professors take to the streets with a new initiative. Every Tuesday and Wednesday classrooms move to the square. “Education is for all” is written on a banner. Some meters away, a long parade made of 2000 teachers protests and asks the president of the Comunidad de Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, to invest the money deducted from their salaries because of the previous three-day strike. The regional Government does not confirm the data given by Unions, but it admits that around 1000 people will lose their job.
Grouped into different commissions, teachers try to explain that they are not fighting for having better working conditions, but especially for the quality of state education. As for parents associations, they have decided to support the protest.
The “protest agenda” organised by the 31000 professors of the Comunidad has already set other dates to take to the streets: 4, 5, and 20 October. The solution to such a “conflict” seems to be far away. Public administration accuses Unions of refusing to negotiate and fomenting a “wild strike which denies the right to education of thousands students”, as stated this morning by Lucía Figar, education councillor of the Comunidad.
Even if the participation of teachers in the three-day strike has been high (80%, according to Unions) the President of regional Government keeps on minimizing the protest and denying budget cuts. Only a week ago, Aguirre inaugurated a high school programme of “excellence” for best students, despite the accusations of teachers and pedagogists claiming that this would create segregation among the youths. The contested politician has also aroused controversy when she stated that “education must not be necessarily free in all its phases”.
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