Goodbye to the parable of “the good life” and “teachers’ holidays” | News from Madrid | EUROtoday

This summer season, Paula Mesta won’t be paid for the English courses she taught at an grownup centre in Aranjuez from final February till the tip of this June when the college yr ended. “I was one month short, last year I was not paid for three days,” she says. The laws set up that with a view to be paid for the summer season, academics should have labored at the least 5.5 months. Mesta has been educating for nearly 20 years, and for the final 4 she has been on the lists of momentary employees in Madrid, the place these fill some 10,000 locations a yr, based on knowledge from the unions, of the 62,000 educating jobs (not college) that there are within the civil service within the area. Approximately, and pending the Ministry of Education offering knowledge, 10% of the substitutions or vacancies crammed by momentary employees arrive in the summertime in Paula’s scenario: “Having to ask for unemployment until they call us again in September.” The fantasy of “the good life of the teacher” and “teachers’ vacations” is crumbling yr after yr.

“There are more and more difficulties in filling vacancies in some subjects, such as computer science in Vocational Training (FP), but there are also beginning to be difficulties in filling positions in Mathematics, Language, Biology,” says Isabel Galvín, union consultant for Education at CCOO. “The “vocation” in educating is falling quickly as a result of professionals are in search of jobs in different industries or sectors by which they earn extra and work much less,” she warns. And she publicizes: “In September we will open for the first time the Psychological Support Service for Teachers.” One may add: burnout. The purpose will likely be to deal with exactly the so-called “burnout syndrome” burnout“, or burnout syndrome.”

“There are no privileges: neither in terms of hours, nor in terms of schedule, nor in terms of functions, nor in terms of salary,” says Galvín, who, other than her union exercise, can also be a professor within the Faculty of Education on the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM). “We take on groups of 40 students, with a huge diversity and without the necessary resources, because the lack of specialized profiles is enormous: it is common for there to be only one counselor for the thousand students in a high school,” she warns. And she describes the scenario of a sector, that of schooling, that’s relegated: “There are fewer and fewer young people who want to be teachers, there are no teachers in those specialties where there are possibilities of finding a better job.”

Paula Mesta says that she studied English Philology with the conviction that she would dedicate herself to educating. What she didn't know was what the parable was hiding: “The amount of hours we work that are not seen: from preparing classes, to correcting homework and exams at home, apart from the enormous bureaucracy involved in any of the protocols that we must put in place, in cases of suicidal tendencies, of detecting gang members in class…”, she explains. “Not everyone can face between 35 and 40 teenagers with raging hormones,” she says mockingly. “My boyfriend tells me: I always thought that being a teacher was a bargain until I met you,” she jokes. Her wage doesn’t attain 2,500 euros, however a newly arrived trainer will get near 1,500 euros.

The works of the month of July

Contrary to the concept academics have two months of trip, a great a part of them work throughout the month of July. “For example, there have been 3,500 teachers employed as examination boards, apart from the thousands of participants, which in the teaching body alone have been 23,000, but which adding up all the examination processes exceeds 40,000,” says Galvín.

Furthermore, all administration groups are energetic till the tip of July, which is when the faculties shut. That is, if we calculate that there are 1,400 public centres in Madrid and a minimal of three individuals per crew, we’re speaking about 4,200 academics who work making ready for the following course all through the month of July. All the academics in Early Childhood Education work your entire month of July. In Madrid there are 54 public colleges instantly managed by the Community, other than these run by town council and the non-public and subsidised colleges. “That is to say, there is no teaching but there is a lot of activity by the teaching staff,” says Galvín, satisfied that it’s time for academics to be valued, primarily by politicians, by eradicating the stigma of “a kind of lazy person” who solely works once they have college students in entrance of them.

“The persecution and stigmatisation of teachers is related to the educational policies of governments that do not value and vindicate teachers, but rather promote distrust of them in society, and do not implement public policies that allow for family conciliation, which is why parents believe that we should work until August, despite the fact that Spain is one of the countries in the European Union with the most school days and, specifically Madrid, is the community with the most school days,” she provides.

Nearly 10,000 academics are actually ready to be known as in September to fill a vacant put up or to exchange a trainer in Madrid. “You have to show up the next day,” says Mesta, who has been educating since 2007. “If you can’t for some reason, you have to go the next day, and if not, it’s like if you refuse and they take you off the list, you’re off,” he explains. “Once you take up your post, your leave is renewed every 15 days,” he says. “You live day by day. The teacher I was replacing would call me every time I went to the doctor, you never know if that year you’re going to make it to the 5, 5 months that are required to get paid for the summer.” And he concludes, about to go on trip: “So summer vacations seem few to me, because you go out quemao”.

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