In a precarious situation and without enough hours to move towards an inclusive school. In this way, the 2023-2024 academic year has begun in Catalonia for caregivers (because they are mostly women) to support students with special educational needs (SEN) and for students and their families. Although the Department of Education assures that this year it has 15% more hours dedicated to this task, there are students who do not have support or who cannot stay for lunch or go on excursions due to a lack of staff. The monitors regret that they work without stability and with salaries that do not match the work they do and ask to be integrated into the school teams. Families demand more hours for their children.
"I charge 840 euros a month including wages and when I finish the course I'm going to be unemployed", explains Ingrid Garcia, a 41-year-old monitor who works in Malgrat de Mar and who regrets that, with the 25 hours a week for which is contracted, can neither subsist nor carry out the care these children require. "In my school, with 12 children with SEN (behavioral disorders or ADHD, among others), 25 hours means two hours per child... This is zero inclusion!". He comments that the contracted hours do not allow, for example, meetings with the special education teacher, which are essential for good follow-up.
These professionals also work with the uncertainty of knowing how many hours they will be contracted the following year. Loubna Hamdoun Akdi is 24 years old, a university student of Criminology and Social Education and works as a monitor in Manresa. Last year he finished the course with 35 hours and this year he started it with 3, although it has been extended to 8. He went from 1,200 to 86 euros, which does not allow him to pay for his studies. When he asked the company for an explanation, he says they only said that there had been a reduction in hours. Loubna regrets that hours have been taken away from her, but that the child she was caring for continues to have the same needs. "They left me without hours, and the child, without help," he explains.
Jessica Estepa, 40, also works for SAMU, the subcontracted company that has the most complaints and with which this media has contacted without getting a response, who complains that she has to work in two schools to be able to be a mileurista. He works 24 hours a week in one center and 10 hours in another, 15 minutes by car in Sabadell. He warns that terminations are not covered and complains that there is no communication with the company.
Fundesplai, which employs around 1,500 monitors, shares the "discomfort" and assures that they have proposed opening a space for dialogue with the Administration to try to improve conditions. However, they explain that it is complicated to combine the needs of the students, which are very variable each year, with the stability of the workers. Froilán Salgado, operational director, also points out that the monitors are a resource, but that the inclusive school decree must go "further". And he is pleased to have included the support monitors in the dining room. "Now it is necessary to take the step to extracurricular activities", he points out.
Sources from the Department of Education have told La Vanguardia that the school year has started with 15% more weekly hours of special attention in public schools. They assure that it has gone from a budget of 25 million euros last year to 29 for this one. Despite the families' complaints, the department claims that "all" territorial services "have seen increased hours". But he points out that the 11,100 hours per week that are being distributed more this year do not mean that all centers have the same hours as last year due to live enrollment and the movements of students with special educational needs.
One of the demands of the professionals is to be integrated into the school templates. "We are essential in the education of these children", underlines Jessica Estepa.
The unions are also calling for the importance of internalizing the collective to give a "real answer" to the inclusive school, claims Cristòfol Ortolà, from CC.OO. from Fundesplay. "These children have been left out", he says. And remember that they don't need to be looked after, but rather an educational intervention.
On the other side of the lack of resources are the children and their families. This is the case of Guillem, three and a half years old. He has a rare disease, explains Rozángela Olimpo, his mother. It's been less than a year since they had the diagnosis and they still don't know if he will be able to speak, because his communication is affected, in addition to suffering from epilepsy and hypotonia. And he could have traits of autism. Guillem attends a charter school in Sant Adrià and has support in the classroom, but he cannot stay in the dining room or go to the swimming pool because he does not have special care hours at the moment. And they don't know when help will arrive. Rozángela complains that her son requires multidisciplinary care that she is not getting. "They told me he was ready to go to ordinary school", claims this mother, who fights to ensure that her son's opportunities are similar to those of the rest of his classmates.
From the Escola Inclusiva platform, they are asking for an evaluation of how "all the resources dedicated to inclusion" are managed in order to guarantee that "they are used for this purpose".
The monitors feel "mistreated" by Education, but highly valued by the schools where they work and by the families. "You have to deal with complicated situations, but receiving a hug from the child solves your day", describes Ingrid Garcia, who claims that she is fighting to improve conditions for monitors and also for children.
Despite the insecurity and little recognition from the Administration, Jessica Estepa recognizes that the effort is worth it: "The backpack we carry emotionally weighs a lot, sometimes, but it is very rewarding."
