About 10,000 students from the province of Alicante started the school year last Monday without a teacher in the classroom. According to figures produced by the CC OO union, the first day of the academic year resulted in the absence of 500 teachers.
The Department of Education has still not provided for the replacement of teachers who are on leave, on leave or who have retired, seemingly a much higher number than in previous years.
The biggest problem has affected Secondary, Vocational Training and conservatories, where the ratio of teachers to pupils is greater. It is estimated that at this educational level there were about 300 teachers missing. The remainder, about 200, correspond to Infant and Primary Education.
The absence of teachers is greater in the province of Alicante than anywhere else in the Valencian Community.
According to Alfonso Terol, Secretary of Education of CC OO in l´Alacantí, there are two reasons. “On the one hand, the number of administrative staff in the Alicante Directorate is much smaller than in Valencia, although the number of teachers is similar.” These workers are responsible for carrying out all administrative procedures that affect teachers, from the payment of salaries to vacancy coverage. The second reason is a lack of coordination between provinces.
The Department has said that it will try to fill the vacancies of teaching staff with appointments planned during the week. One example on Monday morning, saw seven teachers missing from the IES San Vicente.
The Ministry of Education has since published showing the number of vacancies still to be covered in the province with the minister saying that 80% will be filled.
According to the CC OO. “This is disruption that could have been avoided if this procedure had been carried out last week . “
