90% of the families of the Federico Baraibar school are of foreign origin and throughout the course students arrive constantly. “This cultural and linguistic diversity is extraordinarily enriching, but at the same time has consequences that hinder the learning process”, especially those related to the lack of knowledge of the Basque Country. There are many students who need Specific Educational Support, to which it should be added that those who are in a situation of socio-educational vulnerability and families with a difficult socio-economic situation are not few in school.

“With students with these special characteristics we have never had the resources to work properly and the perspective for the course 2023-2024 is regrettable,” said the center’s cloister. Among other things, they will lose a different CV class in 3rd ESO, they will go from three to two groups of 1st ESO (“specific needs will be maintained, but resources will be reduced”), they have lost more than three Therapeutic Pedagogy (PT) teachers in the last five years (and besides having fewer teachers to meet the needs of students, coexistence will be compromised in the classroom).

The next course, moreover, can go on a starting day, and this also worries the cloister, because the center does not have the infrastructure to feed everyone and because having students from very distant neighborhoods would increase absenteeism.

“The situation is worrying and jeopardises the proper functioning of the centre, the well-being of pupils and the right to quality education. We urgently call, on the one hand, for the cuts to be eliminated, and since that is not enough, for the resources to be strengthened,” stressed the cloister of the Federico Baraibar College.