Education in Spain is being destroyed by Mariano Rajoy’s ridiculous austerity measures to such an extent that the education budget will be hit with cuts of 25-30 percent. Spanish teachers are so angry about the education cuts that they will be going on strike on May 22nd. The one-day strike is in protest at changes that will force Spain’s education system to take a gigantic step backwards.
The 25-30 percent education budget cuts in Spain will have consequences like increasing classroom size to more than 40 students per teacher, increasing the hours teachers spend teaching, and reducing the salaries of teachers who are out sick.
Spain’s children will also suffer as substitute teachers will not be hired for the first two weeks a teacher is out sick (I’ve worked in third world countries as a teacher, and they do better than this), and Spain’s teenagers will also suffer as university fees will rise.
The massive cut in Spain’s education budget, of course, is to keep Spain on course with its ‘austerity measures’ in an effort to lower Spain’s debt. As we predict Mariano Rajoy won’t even be in office by next year, the austerity measures will ultimately collapse, so reducing Spain’s education budget is actually quite pointless.
Spain’s teachers, however, will be out on strike on May 22nd, the first teacher strike in Spain in over 10 years and with all five main Spanish teachers’ unions supporting them. More power to ’em, we say.