The unilateral announcement by the Catalan education ministry to bring forward the start of the school year to the beginning of September has had a vigorous response in recent days from the unions in the sector, which have called a five-day strike from March 5th. Beyond the reasons and arguments stated in public by each party, the two sides seem deadlocked with little enthusiasm for giving way, when in this conflict what is missing is dialogue by the truckload, given that neither the administration nor the unions are entirely in the right.
That the minister Cambray's decision is based on a long-running debate on the need to gradually move into step with other countries vis-à-vis their school timetables is true. I myself have raised this in written pieces and speeches on more than one occasion. Obviously, the reason was not so much that teachers' holidays are too long, because this is an argument of great demagoguery, since when they are not taking classes they have, in addition to the holidays that correspond to them, school activities that are also required. By the way, when this debate took place, the two parties that currently make up the government of Catalonia were either against it or silent.
It is therefore welcome that the Catalan government enters into a debate that has been put off for many years. However, what cannot and should not be done is to try, without an in-depth and broad debate, to impose something so sensitive, which affects so many sectors of society - from teachers to families - and with so many vertices, as the school calendar. It is not enough to impose and then talk. In any case, and this isn't ever the best way either, it should be the other way around. The education department has shown clarity in its diagnosis and clumsiness in its presentation. Not to mention that the funds it proposes to use to carry out its plan may not be so easy to free from the meagre contents of the Generalitat's coffers. In summary, it's all happened the wrong way round.
Until March 5th, there remains time to avoid the strike, which would be massively disruptive for families, and both parties would have a hard job of explaining how it got that far. The Catalan ministry of education has to make a move and offer a serious negotiation process to the unions, something that has not happened so far. And the education unions should consider alternative scenarios to the strike if there is a breakthrough in negotiations.
Dialogue is often spoken of as synonymous with negotiation. What is happening with Madrid, for example, is dialogue at best, and nothing more. Because the other side doesn't want to have anything to do with a negotiation. The ministry and the unions must not settle for dialogue that goes nowhere. Negotiation and agreement are needed. And this is the pending issue of both parties in a contention that could not have started on a worse foot.