In a detailed 160-page report, the Catalan ombudsman Rafael Ribó has refuted, one by one, the accusations and demagoguery unleashed against Catalan schools: "I can say categorically that there is no indoctrination". It is very likely that the Popular Party (PP) and Ciudadanos (Cs) are not fully aware of this, since the press edited in Madrid and Spanish television networks aren't fully aware of it either, and that the mantra continues to be spread from a position of ignorance. But no one has ever produced a report so thorough as that of Rafael Ribó, nor has anyone looked into so many incidents as the Catalan ombudsman, arising from the October 1st referendum and the events in the period afterwards.
Thus, of the 174 incidents that reached the ombudsman, there were only ten in which small irregularities were detected. All this in the context of broader figures that are very eloquent: in Catalonia there are 4,800 educational centres, 115,000 teachers and 1.3 million students. From all of this, the result is a dozen irregularities. The second charge that the report refutes is that of indoctrination through the textbooks used in the fifth and sixth year classes of primary schools. And here again, there is no cause for concern, nothing more than the "occasional inaccuracy".
The Catalan ombudsman's report would be unnecessary in normal conditions, since the educational community, the teachers and the parents' associations know very well that there has been no indoctrination in Catalan schools either now or in the past. No professional groups have denounced such a thing, nor are there parents' organisations that sustain it. Another thing is if people have wanted to play games with education, as they have with language, as a first focus in which to sow division and controversy in the Catalan school system. That's why Rafael Ribó's report is very necessary and welcome. Politicians who take advantage of these lies with impunity will still not back down. However, parents, schoolchildren and teachers will have a rigorous study to allow teachers to continue working with the same professionalism and freedom as they have done up until now.
And to know that the work they perform not only has the social recognition it deserves but the standard of quality required in a society that gives a top priority to education, since teachers have in their hands something as invaluable as the tutelage of the next generation of Catalans. Of free citizens who need the best possible education.