The UGT Ensenyament del País Valencià union and the Docents No als Àmbits Imposats Platform delivered this Monday to the Ministry of Education’s offices more than 3,400 signatures collected in four months as a result of the campaign to demand the withdrawal of the “forced grouping” of subjects in ESO. The organizations have defended that it is not possible to impose how it works in the classrooms “at the touch of a barracks whistle”.
A manifesto signed between UGT and the platform claims that the grouping of subjects by areas be of voluntary choice, “as established by state regulations”, and that, in the case of working by areas, “the working conditions of the teaching staff involved are improved” , given that until now “they are forced to teach grouped subjects in which they are not specialists, without resources or sufficient hours of coordination or co-teaching.”
The trade union organization has demanded that the measures for implementing teaching by areas in the first year of secondary school and eventually in the second year be reviewed. In a statement, UGT points out that these measures consist of grouping sociolinguistic or scientific-technical subjects for their teaching and comprehensive work.
“In education, how it works in the classroom cannot be imposed at the touch of a barracks whistle, much less force far-reaching changes for which there are no means or conditions,” they have defended from the union. Therefore, they have claimed that if you want to develop a teaching system by areas, it should be done voluntarily with teachers and centers that wish to implement it and have good working conditions.
For UGT, “respect for the principle of specialization is fundamental” and they warn that, until now, “the forced grouping of subjects is taking place without guaranteeing that they are taught by specialist teachers in them.”
In fact, he points out that there is even the case of grouping three subjects and forcing them to be taught by a teacher who is only a specialist in one. In any case, UGT has demanded that, if you want to form an area, “you have the necessary specialists.”
«It is totally out of place for teachers who have not taken an exam or a career in a certain subject to be forced to teach it. If you want to work on interdisciplinarity, you must have specialists”, says UGT.
Finally, UGT hopes that the new Minister of Education, Raquel Tamarit, will show “more sensitivity” than her predecessor, Vicent Marzà. «Teachers must be listened to and count on them to improve the Valencian educational system without impositions and without labor exploitation that involves forcing tasks without means or conditions. The quality of the educational system is at stake », she adds.
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