Are we in or are we out?

TEACHERS in the Alicante region want to know if they are among the 200 who will not have a position waiting for them in September.

Within the last week, the Ministry of Education announced a new law that does away with 200 teachers and 135 classrooms. It endangers teachers who provide extra help or specialty classes including music or art as well as entire schools in rural communities.

Hundreds of Alicante teachers gathered outside the Ministry’s doors to find out if they are affected by the legislation. According to those among them, “many teachers are not even aware of the new law.”

Some know of cutbacks in their districts, but “we don’t know who is left out, no one has told us anything.” One teacher said, “I’m afraid, I don’t know what is going to happen.”

Apparently some have heard that those who have been teaching longer are given preference, but “it’s not turning out that way, they are giving positions to new teachers.”

Union leader, Paco Garcia, requested that each teacher handle the situation legally by presenting a complaint and asking for relocation to other centres. “This hasn’t been done legally [by the Ministry], they skipped processes, like they have always done and those affected haven’t even realized it.”

A representative of the union CCOO declared that “with this new law, they are going to have to close schools and rural areas will go without education.”