SCHOOLS across Spain will be on strike on Thursday, March 9 in a bid to pressure the government into scrapping the unpopular education reform, known as the LOMCE, and giving them a 'clear plan' for their recently-discussed 'Education Pact'.
Protests will be staged by Spain's major unions, the CCOO, UGT and CGT, and teaching union, the STES, together with the Student Front, Students in Movement, the Union of Students and FAEST, along with the State Confederation of PTAs and the platform Pedagogical Renewal.
The PTA Confederation, CEAPA, says it wants the government to withdraw what it calls an 'unacceptable' appeal to the Constitutional Court against the implanting of legislation aimed at halting the application of the LOMCE.
The LOMCE, introduced by former education minister José Ignacio Wert, has been slammed by schools across the country as a method of 'weeding out' weaker students at a very early age, effectively splitting Spain's young adults into 'top academic hopefuls' and 'factory fodder', thus condemning late bloomers, or highly-intelligent pupils who do not flourish under the mainstream school system, to a life of low-qualified menial jobs when they may, with the right help, have been capable of going to university.
It has also been slammed as rigid, right-wing, pro-Catholic, and strongly memory-based with no room for critical thinking skills, with exam grades taking priority over the quality of coursework and other aspects of the education system.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com