The spokesperson for Education of the PSOE Aragón, Jorge Pastor, has denounced this Monday that the regional government "has lost the opportunity to position itself alongside the educational community," by censoring both the new decree on extracurricular activities and the government's commitment to the concertation of Baccalaureate.
In a press conference, Pastor has claimed the defense of public education, which he has described as "of great quality and that welcomes everyone regardless of their origin, nor their color nor the work of their parents."
Regarding the decree that regulates extracurricular activities, he has opined that "it has been like the birth of the mountains" because "expectation and noise were generated, but the government has given birth to a mouse." In his view, the regulation does not achieve the announced goals: to guarantee the continuity of these activities, to ensure the legal security of the teaching staff, nor to provide sufficient means and resources to carry out adequate and safe proposals.
As he has explained, "the criticisms are unanimous" among teaching unions, associations of school directors, and family associations. In Pastor's opinion, this regulation "adds more bureaucracy and workload, more exposure for the school management and teaching staff, more responsibility to the educational inspection and does not add any additional resources."
He has also reproached that the decree does not expressly include the extra dedication of the teaching staff, nor does it contemplate economic or professional compensations, and that, in addition, "private insurances are promoted from the public system," while "it demands more from the public education system than from the concerted one."
On the concertation of Baccalaureate, he has warned that, in practice, it implies its privatization and that it has been promoted "with agosticity," emphasizing that "it is not needed" because in the public network there are more than 2,000 unfilled places.
With the concertation of Baccalaureate, he has continued, "the Azcón government shows the right that it is interested in and concerned about the things that affect their privileges and managing the public to benefit their own."