The Minister of Education, José Ignacio Wertannounced this week new cuts for primary and secondary education to the Autonomous Communities.
The cut planned by the Government will be 3,000 million euros, a budget reduction that would be based on the revision of the student ratio by classroom and the number of hours who work teachers in Spain.
Already in January, the head of Education proposed as a saving measure that the teacher teaching schedule It could be increased until 21 or 22 hours per week. In autonomous communities such as Madrid, Murcia, Balearic Islands and Castilla-La Mancha this measure will take effect in the 2012-2013 academic year and for the following year it will be applied in Castilla-León, Cantabria, Navarra and the Valencian Community.
As for the increase in the number of students per classroom, it is currently set at 25 students per Primary class and 30 in Secondary, although depending on each educational center it could be increased by up to an additional 10%.
For ANPE, UGT and CC.OO, expanding the number of students per class would be a massification and return to levels of three decades ago. Although they also comment that the increase in children per class, and provided that a homogeneous student body is maintained, should not impact the performance of the kids. And, in Spain the classrooms are diversified and a greater number of students could hinder the integration and personalized attention of those who need it most.
They add that another additional problem would be the possible disappearance of classrooms in rural areas with few inhabitants, where there are classes for nine children and even less.
