Education in Córdoba in the 2023-2024 academic year is “at the starting point.” There is less staff and units, excess ratio, bureaucracy and very little progress and measures to alleviate the situation. These are the main conclusions of a study prepared by the CSIF union in the province of Córdoba through a survey of teachers that addresses their main concerns.
The results have been offered by the head of the Education Sector of CSIF Córdoba, Antonio Pachón this Monday. One of the data that he has highlighted is that 76% of teachers consider that the number of teachers is inadequate to conveniently serve students, including those who need special attention.
The workforce has been reduced, reports Pachón, which offers the Andalusian numbers: 1,011 fewer teaching positions, 415 in Secondary and 596 in the teaching staff. In Córdoba there has been a decrease 59 positionswhich “compromises the quality of education for personalized teaching.”
In the last five courses, 1,757 have been lost units In Andalusia and Córdoba there is a “worrying trend” towards their closure. In the 2023-24 academic year, 31 were created, but 85 were eliminated, so 54 units have been lost in one year and 193 in the last four years, according to CSIF data. Thus, the number of students taught by teachers is “excessive”, an average of 30.
This personalized attention includes, precisely, the ratio. Although 68% of those surveyed affirm that they have not had to teach in groups that exceeded the legal ratio, the union has detected that more than 302 units are affected by excess ratio in the Córdoba centers. “It is necessary for the administration to act urgently” since 94% of the teaching staff understand that they cannot offer individualized attention with these ratios.
In the opinion of the union representative, “in the priority problems of the Córdoba public educational system, such as the staff deficit, the current ratios, the lack of resources for adequate attention to diversity or the excess of bureaucracy, there has been no progress nor firm steps taken by the Administration to give them a solution.”
Likewise, within this deficit of human resources that teachers confirm, the resources allocated to the attention to diversity, since 79.4% believe that the provision of professionals in this area (Teachers of Therapeutic Pedagogy, Hearing and Language and counselors) is inadequate or very inadequate. If these professionals are asked directly, they indicate in almost 93% of cases that the number of students they have to attend to weekly in order to respond to their needs is very inadequate or inadequate.
Regarding school infrastructure, 41% of those surveyed rate it as “regular” in its most general state, while for 38% the technological tools are not adequate. But in this section what is perhaps most worrying is thermal comfort, especially in summer. For 62% of teachers, the conditions in classrooms and common spaces in extreme heat situations are bad, while for 43% they are also bad during the winter.
CSIF has evaluated the bureaucratic burden of teachers, which for 83% has increased in the last year, “they are being subjected to bureaucratic demands that do not improve the quality of attention to students,” says Antonio Pachón and this is also considered by the 96% of those surveyed. Furthermore, 62% consider the implementation of teleworking in the non-teaching hours of teachers to be favorable, while 79% believe that the reduction of teaching hours would have positive effects on the quality of teaching. And more than 40% of Secondary School teachers indicate that their schedule has exceeded 18 teaching hours in this course.
“Proliferation of private centers” for FP
From CSIF Córdoba they have warned of a “proliferation of private centers” for Vocational Training. The number of students who go to private centers grows by 60% to carry out training cycles and the demand is not being met by the public, explains Pachón, who demands that the Board address the situation and create more public vocational training centers.
In fact, the union has denounced that the Board is considering close the FP offer in its distance modality in in all the Andalusian provinces, including Córdoba, and unify it into a single center located in Almería, which would mean the elimination of 19 Córdoba professionals from the Maimónides and Trassierra institutes. “We are not going to allow the reduction of the public offer of Vocational Training in any of its modalities to favor private initiative,” emphasizes Pachón.
“The 2023-2024 academic year ends without significant progress and the Board must include in its Budgets for 2025, which are now being forged, items to increase staff, lower ratios, eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy and offer the quality public education that Córdoba needs,” said the union representative, who has predicted a “hot autumn if the autonomous Administration is not truly committed.”
