MADRID – Spanish teachers went on strike yesterday to protest against cuts in education spending that unions say will put 100,000 substitute teachers out of work but that the government says are needed to tackle the euro zone debt crisis.
The central government has ordered Spain’s 17 autonomous regions to cut €3 billion from education spending this year as part of a tough programme to trim the public deficit to an EU-agreed level of 5.3 per cent of gross domestic product. Spain’s economy is contracting for the second time since late 2009 and four years of stagnation and recession have pushed unemployment above 24 per cent, the highest rate in the European Union.
Yesterday’s strike affected all levels of public education, from preschool to university.
“This strike is necessary because we have to tell everyone what it means to cut spending in a country where education is not as good as in other countries,” said Begonia Sanchez, an experienced schoolteacher who now runs an educational centre.
The autonomous regions, many of which overspent on huge infrastructure projects during the boom years from the late 1990s to 2008, are expected to raise fees for state universities to meet their budgetary goals.
The central government’s education reform also increases the average number of students in each class by 20 per cent. – (Reuters)