Alex Trelinski
STUDENT leaders in Spain have announced a three-day strike to voice their concern over problems for teachers and pupils alike, ahead of the new school year starting this September.
El Sindicato de Estudiantes(SE) representatives stood outside the Ministry of Education headquarters in Madrid today(August 26) and called for all students to support the strike from September 18.
Schools were closed in March due to the State of Alarm with online teaching replacing classroom lessons.
SE spokesperson, Coral Latorre, said: “We need to demand that the disaster of having online teaching is not repeated and that young people should not be criminalised over the recent increase in COVID-19 cases.”
“Young people want to return to class”, added Latorre, who claimed that Education Minister, Isabel Celaa, had not replied to any of their written requests for talks over classroom sizes and safety concerns.
Teaching unions were also in Madrid to hand over a 230,000 signature petition which called for better teacher-pupil ratios to reduce class sizes.
They also demanded improved cleansing for school buildings and better personal protection for teachers to minimise the risk of catching COVID-19.
