The day of strike in public education in Navarre has begun with news pickets and columns of protest against the reform. The strikers have concentrated on the main public centers of Pamplona, such as the IES Iturrama, the Patxi Larrainzar College, the Ikastola Amaiur or the San Francisco School of the Old Town of Pamplona. But also outside Pamplona/Iruña there are many villages that are protesting from the very first hour.

11:00 First joint concentration in Alsasua, Elizondo, Tafalla, Tudela, Estella and Pamplona. In some cases, they have organized columns to go to them. The most multitudinous demonstration was convened at 18:00 in Pamplona, starting from the Plaza de la Cruz de Pamplona.

The most important event took place in front of the Ministry of Education of the Government of Navarra in Pamplona. There, on behalf of the convening trade unions, Uxue Itoiz of ELA and Unai Alavés of CCOO have made statements to the media and have indicated that they cannot do their job well because of the workload: “We want to pay attention to the diversity of the students, test new materials and motivators, attend to the families … but the workload does not allow us to do so”. They claim that their patience has been exhausted and that they will continue to achieve the goals that have been set for them.

Too many ratios, instability, too much bureaucracy ...

Steilas, ANPE, AFAPNA, LAB, CCOO, ELA and UGT have called for a general strike in public education to demand quality education in public education.

Among other things, they call for lower ratios in public education in order to respond to the real needs of all students. In addition, they have denounced that the overload of work and the excessive bureaucracy they suffer in daily life have a great influence on the teaching process.

The stability of the sector is also one of the main demands, since at present 50.4% of the public teaching staff in Navarre are in a precarious situation.

Finally, they demanded that the Department of Education "deal with the loss of purchasing power". The trade unions have assured that this loss has been 15 per cent in recent years, according to the data provided. "This is an issue that affects the whole of Navarre society and, therefore, it is up to the government to prioritize public education and put it at the centre," Steilas explained in a statement.

"It's not a new account"

"This is not a new issue, we have done a great deal of work since last year to negotiate with the Department of Education," he said in Euskalerria Irratia Iosu Arraiz, representative of LAB. We've tried many ways, but it hasn't been possible, the Department of Education hasn't moved a millimeter."

Thus, given the "insufficient response" of the Department of Education, they have decided to go on strike: "The teachers mobilize us to receive the attention that the students of public education deserve. In other words, we want to improve the quality of the public service we offer to Navarre society," all the unions explained at the press conference convened last week to call for a strike.

"Manipulation and demagogy" by Gimeno

Meanwhile, the Education Advisor, Carlos Gimeno, has stated that the call for a strike "damages" the public education itself.

In a letter, Uxue Itoiz, Rakel Arjol and Mikel Larraza, from the ELA Education area, have responded strongly to the counselor and have stated that their words are "full of manipulation, demagogy and lies."

In his view, this strike should only be "the beginning of more effective mobilisations" than the current ones. The waters come proud this fall in the education of Navarra.