News
The new Catalan education pact is signed without photos or public celebrations
The new Catalan education pact has already been signed, but without an official photo or public celebration. The Government has finalised the agreement with CCOO, UGT and ASPEPC in a discreet event, far from the institutional staging that usually accompanies major education pacts.
The caution is no accident. The agreement comes after weeks of strikes, protests and tension in schools and secondary schools, and just days after a consultation among teachers rejected the preliminary agreement by a wide majority. The discontent of a significant part of the teaching staff remains very present.
The pact expands on the agreement signed in March and includes several employment and organisational measures. These include a progressive pay rise of around 400 euros over four years, the addition of 6,400 professionals to the education system and the call for applications for 5,000 professorships.
It also includes the recovery of the debt relating to six-year pay increments within five years, a historic demand of teachers. For the Govern, the package must serve to stabilise the system and close a cycle of conflict that has marked the academic year.
The problem is that part of the teaching staff does not feel represented by the agreement. In the consultation promoted by several unions, more than 39,000 teachers voted against it, compared with just over 21,000 votes in favour. Turnout exceeded 60% of the electorate consulted.
That rejection explains the subdued tone of the signing. The Govern and the signatory unions have avoided turning the pact into a triumphalist image, aware that many classrooms still see the agreement as insufficient or removed from their real demands.
The tension has also damaged the role of trade union organisations. While some unions defend the pact as a possible improvement after months of negotiation, others believe that it does not address the accumulated strain caused by staffing levels, class ratios, bureaucracy and loss of purchasing power.
The question now is whether the pact will serve to end the period of strikes or whether the conflict will continue with new mobilisations. In Catalunya, education once again shows that agreements are measured not only by what is signed at a table, but by the trust they manage to generate within classrooms.