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Editorial:
Editorials
These are the responsibility of the editor and convey the newspaper's view on current affairs-both domestic and international

Schoolteachers up in arms

Political statements and overacting by the unions heat up the education cutbacks issue

The protests over budget cutbacks in public education, which have elicited a massive turnout, are now marking the beginning of the school year. The first cuts that have been applied in 30 years have alarmed both teachers and the parents of schoolchildren. It is obvious that the increase in class hours for each permanent teacher, and the consequent reduction in the number of substitute staff in 10 regions may affect the quality of teaching. To assert the contrary would be possible only if the regional education departments that have implemented the cutbacks had brought forward some parallel project to increase the efficiency of the system.

The fact that they have not done so, and that they have not even considered cutbacks in less crucial budget headings while speaking only of the generic need to reduce expenditure, is a far too explicit indicator of the importance that these regional governments - most of them in the hands of the Popular Party (PP) - afford to public education.

Far from discussing any such considerations, the politicians have engaged in a crossfire of disgraceful statements that have only served to heat the atmosphere. Outstanding among them, as usual, are those of the regional premier of Madrid and former national education minister, Esperanza Aguirre, who first explained that teachers work only 20 hours per week - confusing class hours with the much greater number of hours a schoolteacher really works - before later commenting that consideration ought to be given to putting an end to free public education above the obligatory level, in reference both to vocational training and to the high school diploma.

These statements, routinely endorsed by her party, have been echoed by the PP's parliamentary spokesperson, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, who blames all the ills of the educational system on the "Socialists' law" - the LOGSE (General Law of the Educational System, enacted in 1990 under the Socialist government of Felipe González, and laying major stress on free public education, as opposed to subsidies to private schools, which in Spain are largely run by the Church).

Hence it may be expected that the PP, following the same line of argument that leads it to assert that a change of government will solve the economic crisis, trusts that the mere repeal of a law will be sufficient to improve the educational system. Of course, there have been more than enough reasons for concern about the quality of public education. But the cutbacks now come just when the first signs of improvement were making themselves felt in a system that has suffered endemic deficits.

This does not, however, justify any sort of overacting on the part of the unions, who ought to gauge carefully the proportionality of their protests, and abstain from interfering in the electoral campaign. Such an attitude only lends wings to politicians such as Aguirre, undermines their own credibility, and does a poor service to the long-suffering educational system.

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