Teacher's manifesto against indoctrination in Catalonia

The undersigned wish to express our concern for the content of the recently published information on the state of our educational system. Both the State High Education Inspection Report that warns about textbooks in Catalonia and the report on Nationalist Instrumentalization of the Education System in Catalonia: The case of October 1 prepared by the Assembly for a Bilingual School and the Catalan Civil Society, they give an account of the manipulation of the school carried out by the Government of the Generalitat of Catalonia. Its educational nature has been distorted by turning towards the teaching of contents that contravene the rights, liberties and fundamental duties set forth in the Spanish Constitution and in the organic educational laws.

We should not forget that education is the best way of social progress. Together with the system of public scholarships, it has proven to be the most effective mechanism of personal development, compensating for family and social inequalities. A quality education system is a cornerstone for the development of any society and teachers and professors have contributed decisively to this, together with families and other members of the educational community.

From almost primary to higher education, the Spanish educational system has made progress in eradicating abuse and harassment of the most vulnerable. This achievement, on which we must continue to make progress, has undoubtedly been a shared success of the entire educational community. The paradox is that, if it is an effective mechanism for social prosperity, education in Catalonia has become an unsupportive mechanism that widens the gap between first and second class citizens, according to their mother tongue. On the falsehood that only Catalan and not also Spanish or Castilian is the language of Catalonia, an identity education system based on immersion has been built. Proof of the regressive and unsupportive of this educational model is that the scholastic failure of the Spanish-speaking students is double that of the Catalan speakers. This is clear from the analysis of the data of Catalan students in the latest edition of PISA. 20.3% of the Spanish-speaking students did not manage to surpass the minimum level of PISA 2015 in mathematics, more than double that of Catalan speakers in that same situation (10.1%).

The Report of the High Educational Inspectorate of the State and the report Nationalistic Instrumentalization of the Educational System in Catalonia: The case of October 1 helps to understand this openly unsolidary result that perverts the noblest aspiration of education.

Unlike other essential services such as health or public safety, with visible results in the short term, education requires more time to show the success or failure of its design. This difficulty to reward or punish in the short term those responsible for educational laws has turned the educational system into a favorable ground for political strife, away from stable and non-partisan consensus.

For all these reasons, we demand from the competent authorities:

1.- To take into account the information provided by the Report of the State Educational High Inspectorate and the report Nationalist Instrumentation of the Education System in Catalonia: the case of October 1 and act to correct these irregularities.

2.- That they comply with and enforce the right to education in the terms of article 27 of the Spanish Constitution, excluding discrimination and sectarianism in schools throughout the national territory.

The original document inclusive the 77 names of the signers are here to find.