Reduce teachers’ teaching hours, lower ratios, equalize salaries, increase resources to serve students with diversity and end excess bureaucracy. These are the main points that have motivated the strike and demonstration scheduled for this Wednesday, May 8 in the Madrid’s community. Throughout the day there will be stoppages in schools and institutes and rallies in the capital and in several municipalities.
“The teachers fighting are also teaching”, this will be one of the main slogans that will sound during the tour on Wednesday that will begin 6:00 p.m. in Plaza de Neptuno to continue along Paseo de Recoletos and Calle de Alcalá until reaching Puerta del Sol, in front of the regional government headquarters. The majority unions – Workers’ Commissions (CC OO), the Independent Union, at the service of public education teachers (ANPE), CSIF and the General Union of Workers (UGT) – have called on all teachers in the region to request improvements at the educational level from the Community of Madrid.
In addition, in the morning there will be other concentrations in various points of the region such as in front of the Ministry of Education, Science and Universities (12:00 p.m.), on the Campus of the Carlos III University in Leganés (12:00 p.m.), in the Plaza de la Constitución of Fuenlabrada (10:30 a.m.), in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento of Aranjuez (12:00 p.m.) and in the Plaza de la Constitución of Rivas Vaciamadrid (11:00 a.m.). Although the unions remember that “The important thing” will be the demonstration at six in the afternoon.
The strikes scheduled for Wednesday and May 21 come after The Ministry of Education did not comply with the demands of the unions for the reduction of teaching hours in institutes and in the Special Regime, going from 8 p.m. to 6 p.m. and reduce in Primary and Infant from the current 25 hours to 23 hours. With one day left for the breaks, “there has been no meeting, nor any new initiative by the Ministry”, The general secretary of CC OO, Isabel Galvín, has clarified. On behalf of the regional Executive, the counselor, Emilio Viciana, reiterated this Monday that they continue with their hand outstretched and would like to “avoid this strike.”
“If the regional government does not reverse the situation, the calendar of mobilizations will be extended, putting the end of this course and the start of the next at risk,” the unions warned in a joint statement after the negotiations for the new Sectoral Agreement broke down. From the educational field They consider it a priority to reverse the increase in teaching hours that occurred in 2012 as a result of the financial crisis. In addition, they consider it necessary to address other issues such as an effective reduction in the number of students per classroom, equate salaries with other autonomous communities, increase resources to serve students with diversity, with more teachers and small groups, and apply a plan of shock against bureaucratic overload.
From the regional government, counselor Emilio Viciana alleged that For budgetary reasons it was not feasible to implement all of this at the pace requested by the unions, so proposed reducing one hour per week for high school teachers in the 2026-2027 academic year. Viciana promised to advance further along this line if the economic situation allowed it. in the future.
The Ministry has emphasized the commitment of the Community of Madrid to improve the conditions of teachers. Therefore, they remember that it has been carried out “an enormous investment in recent years” aimed at reducing the ratios in Primary and Secondary. Along with this measure is the hiring of 2,700 teachers with a disbursement of 130 million euros annually. Also highlighted is the salary improvement applied since the 2022-2023 academic year, which has benefited more than 86,000 workers and has meant allocating another 100 million euros per year. To these amounts, another 41 million euros would have to be added, he stressed, to pay for the productivity supplements received by more than 40,000 teachers.
Minimum services for May 8 and 21
Given the strikes called by the majority unions for Wednesday, May 8 and Tuesday, May 21, the Community of Madrid has established minimum services for the two days of strike. For this reason, it is guaranteed that two people from the management team will be present in public institutes and schools. Likewise, the attendance of one teacher for every 50 students enrolled in Primary, one teacher for every 90 in Secondary and one teacher for every 25 students in the Special Regime is established.
The order published in the Official Gazette of the Community of Madrid (BOCM) establishes the obligation that in each center the director and the head of Studies are present or, failing them, the secretary. For all those educational centers with the second cycle of Early Childhood and Primary Education, in addition, one teacher for every 50 students or fraction and in the ESO centers or with basic grade training cycles, there will be one more teacher for every 90 students of these teachings. or fraction.
In ordinary centers that serve students with special educational needs, in addition to those generally established for all centers, there must be one teacher or professor for every 25 students with said needs or fraction. In addition, Particularities are established for rural centers, Special Education centers and Early Childhood Education centers.
The unions assessed these measures as “abusive” which, they stated, “in practice, it prevents the free democratic exercise of the strike.” Despite this, teachers will comply with the order established by the Ministry, as indicated by CSIF.
