The members of the School Council of Catalonia have requested in a meeting held on Thursday afternoon with the person responsible for Education in Catalonia that the 2024-2025 academic year begin on Monday, September 9. That date, they have argued, would allow teachers to have five business days to meet the new teachers who join the faculty and prepare the course without haste.
Councilor Anna Simó has listened to the opinions without speaking out. He has committed to receiving the report on the calendar that the council is preparing before making a decision in this regard, although he has stressed that in no case will the school year start again after September 11, as was usual until recently. two courses.
Thus, all sectors of the educational community, including family associations, have considered that this year the calendar dates are favorable and allow teachers a break to prepare the course well.
Teachers will return from summer vacation on September 2, which falls on a Monday. So you have five business days ahead to prepare the classes and receive the children the following Monday, the 9th.
If this were the case, the children would start on the 9th and 10th, and would have a holiday on the 11th (Catalonia Day).
The start of the school year determines the length of the terms for children, the air conditioning in the classroom and holidays, among other aspects. According to the Education Law of Catalonia (LEC), the maximum number of school days established is 178 per year. If the course is brought forward, there must be more days of free disposal or it must be shortened in June.
The teachers, in any case, see this September with relief after having gone through two years of strong pressure before opening their doors. The first year in which the Generalitat decided to advance the school calendar was 2022-2023. The day on September 5, when primary school students joined, was a Monday, so teachers only had September 1 and 2 to prepare the course.
It was established that the afternoons were not school hours, but the centers had to remain open to facilitate family conciliation. For this, leisure instructors were hired. The institutes had a few more days since high school students started on September 7. An external audit considered this model negative.
The second course of this measure was not better. The doors of the schools opened on Wednesday, September 6, 2023. Once again, the teachers were rushed to prepare the classrooms and hold cloisters in three days (September 1, 4 and 5) with the subsequent protests by the school management. center. In the case of secondary and post-compulsory education, the date was moved to September 12, after the holiday.
The lack of time expressed by management created labor tensions. Initially, it was considered that teachers would go to work the first week of July, a business month for teachers, but when they are not used to holding meetings. It is dedicated to training. Faced with the protest of the unions and the holding of large-scale oppositions, Educació backed down.
For this reason, the educational community views with optimism the new dates that allow the councilor a margin of action in what will be her first calendar order.
The council commission is working on the request to set the dates of the school calendar years in advance, as happens in other countries, so that there is no need to wait until the spring before the start of the school year for families, schools and leisure know the dates and adapt to them.
Advancing the course to the first week of September is a measure promoted by the educational administration that maintains that it is "especially beneficial for students in the most vulnerable situation, since it reduces disconnection in summer and guarantees equal opportunities." She also said that she was a feminist. She did not take into account, however, the possibility of inclement weather brought about by climate change, for which the classrooms of most schools and institutes are not prepared.
