88% of teachers believe that their profession has lost prestige and feel excluded from educational decisions. This is what emerges in the second part of the report Study on teacher distress in Cataloniadeveloped by the Ustec union, the majority in the sector, promoted last year to quantify the perception of wear and the group’s concerns. “There is a crisis of recognition and participation that is negatively impacting the profession,” the report concludes. With this “structural wear and tear”, according to Ustec, the unions are preparing for the joint demonstration next Saturday, called to ask for improvements at work.
This Wednesday the Ustec union presented the second part of the results of the macro-survey carried out last year and to which approximately 14,000 teachers from public centers of all educational levels responded. A year ago the first results were presented, which reflected the group’s discontent: 36% were thinking of leaving the profession. On this occasion, answers are collected on the workload, working conditions or the school calendar.
In detail, the survey conducted by Ustec reveals that the high level of bureaucracy is the main factor of teachers’ discomfort, as 84% say it is excessive, and almost two out of three (64%) think they have an excessive workload. This translates into a high percentage of teachers who admit that they do not have enough time to prepare lessons: 76%.
There are other aspects of working conditions that displease the group, such as the high percentages (79% see them as a problem), while dissatisfaction with salary drops to 58% of those interviewed. The lack of resources to take care of students with needs and disorders is also highlighted by 88% of teachers, while 65% are dissatisfied with the training received at the university or in the courses organized periodically by the Department.
The majority of teachers are also against the current working day and 89% are in favor of the compacted day, while two out of three would prefer to start the course after Diada, as happened a few years ago.
A curious fact that emerged from the investigation is that the model decree – which gives management the power to select teachers based on their profile and not based on the order of the scholarship – does not cause a majority rejection, as happens at union level. Specifically, this initiative causes division in the group and 53% are against it, since in the end it also benefits some of the teaching staff.
The report also includes the different solutions proposed by teachers, such as reducing percentages, adding more teachers and specialized staff, reducing bureaucratic procedures, increasing salaries or air conditioning the centers.
Unified protest
To demonstrate this discontent, the various educational unions have called a united protest for this Saturday and are thus launching the first push against the government of Salvador Illa. “We gave them a year to implement their educational model, but there were many commitments announced, but not kept, and this generates disappointment and leads us to act,” summarized Iolanda Segura, spokeswoman for Ustec. Among these unfulfilled agreements, Segura assures that the Department of Education did not respond to the tender for regional transfers to give permanent positions to new officials or to reduce bureaucracy. “A de-bureaucratization plan has been announced and we have not yet seen any proposal; on the contrary, every time a program is announced, it is accompanied by more bureaucracy,” criticized Segura.
The reduction of the workload, together with the decrease in the percentage of students, the increase in staff and salaries constitute the four requests of the event. “We are the lowest paid teachers in the state. And the element that differentiates us is the specific regional integration (the salary is set by the central government), which has not been updated for years, but the Department has already told us that it is not about to update it”, complains the Ustec spokesperson.
