The counselor of Education and Employment of the Government of La Rioja, Alberto Galiana, has valued the start of the school year 2026-2027 as "positive," a beginning that, in his opinion, comes accompanied by a "landscape of hope, of organization, that is a determined commitment to education with a budgetary reflection."
Galiana has responded thus to the PSOE deputy, Teresa Villuendas, who had asked him in Parliament for a detailed assessment of the beginning of the 2026-2027 school year. The socialist parliamentarian has emphasized that this start "has coincided precisely with the publication of the PISA report data and this has practically overshadowed everything."
According to Villuendas, from the Ministry "they made an analysis from my point of view rushed and superficial, blaming the LOMLOE for all the ills," something that, in her view, "has been a mistake because they know full well the complexity and how much classrooms have changed in these years." In this sense, she has stressed that "we cannot forget the social, economic, and family context of our students."
The PSOE deputy has maintained that the 27 years of PP governments have caused "the inequality and educational gap that our students suffer, especially our evidently more vulnerable students, has also been highlighted in the report."
Even so, Villuendas has admitted that the school year has started "with some tranquility," unlike other years "since they arrived," when there was "chaos in the preparation of lists of substitutes, which ended the patience of the teachers affected in their positions, and led to students joining the educational centers before the teaching staff."
She has also acknowledged that "it is true and must be recognized that we start with more teachers, but also with a level of temporary contracts that is already structural and exceeds 30 percent, which is synonymous with uncertainty, with job precariousness, but, above all, that it is unfeasible to provide stability to solid educational projects in our centers."
A "ordered" start to the school year and with more resources
In his reply, the counselor has defended that the course has been launched in a "normalized, orderly manner, without significant incidents, with more teachers than ever, with a stabilized number of students, with more vocational training students than ever, with an earlier incorporation than in any year of interim personnel, and of course with a volume of infrastructure greater than ever, under construction."
For Galiana, this situation "is not casual," and he has recalled that the president of the La Rioja Executive, Gonzalo Capellán, "a few minutes ago claimed the increase in public services, in the budgets, and particularly in the educational field, I have to do it too."
He has detailed that "until the year 2026, 60 million increase compared to 2023, but now they are going to exceed 82 million increase in 2027." In his words, "we are talking about a growth close to 25 percent of the budget, and that is a determined bet, it is a real, tangible bet, and it is progressively being noticed in the improvement of the classrooms."
In relation to the "PISA" report, Galiana has insisted that the causes "are always multifactorial and must be evaluated in depth," referring, among other factors, to COVID or technology, and adding that "the application of the LOMLOE must be included in that assessment."
Finally, the counselor has referred to the problem of interim positions and has explained that "very important measures have been adopted as a result of agreements with the trade unions that are being beneficial for that group, but in addition right now in the sectoral education table there is also a negotiation with the trade unions to promote extraordinary calls." He has advanced that "in subsequent years, with more than 500 positions that will contribute to reducing interim positions even more," he concluded.