Catalonia advances the start of the course: September 5 in primary and 7 in secondary

In a press conference after visiting the Baldiri Reixac school in Barcelona, ​​the ‘president’ of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonesand the ‘conseller’ of Education, Josep González-Cambrayhave presented an important change for the next school year 2022/23 in Catalonia, a course marked by the promotion of the educational model by competencies, which also reaches the Baccalaureate. The big news will be is restructured schedule to bring forward the start of classes, which until now had been determined by the celebration of the Diada on September 11. The course will start on September 5 for infant and primary education and September 7 for ESO, Baccalaureate and FP.

In this way, the summer holidays will be shortened. Aragonès has justified this change as a measure to favor equal opportunities, which begins at school, he has said. Thus, it seeks to benefit all those families who have difficulties in enrolling their children in leisure activities before the start of the course. Also to single-parent families and will benefit conciliation. “The economic situation of the families cannot be a determining factor”, the ‘president’ stressed. Another objective, he has pointed out, is the “pedagogical need to improve the educational results of students” since “the excessively long summer disconnection can contribute negatively to the learning process”. “Education is the fundamental pillar of society,” he added.

Cambray has pointed out that the distribution of public holidays, highly concentrated in summer, was “atypical”, and that Catalonia is one of the areas of Europe that started classes later. “We are rationalizing the calendar and we are approaching the European calendars”, the ‘conseller’ has underlined. He has assured that shortening the summer holidays will not mean a reduction in teaching hours or an increase in working hours for teachers. In this sense, teachers are left without that week they had before the start of classes to prepare for the course. This is compensated by adding an hour of coordination after classes during the month of September, “to prepare materials once they know the students.”

Likewise, Educació will advance a month, from July to June, the naming templates so that in July all the teams are already named and they can already start preparing the course.

This reorganization will also mean that the Christmas holidays they will win one day; will start on December 22 instead of the 23. In addition, centers earn a free disposal day: It will take 3 to 4 days. Educació will recommend that this additional day be done during the second school semester. The course will end on June 22 for infant and primary and June 20 for secondary.

In addition, between September 5 and 30, the infant and primary centers will short-time from 09:00 to 13:00. The dining room service and the midday space will work normally until 3:30 p.m. There will be no classes in the afternoon. The Schools concerted, who now do not do an intensive day in June, will have to do it next September. The institutes will not do an intensive day.

During the intensive day, teachers must remain in the center until 3:00 p.m. Cambray has argued that the fact that classes end at 1:00 p.m. will allow teachers to have one more hour of coordination per day. This measure, the ‘conseller’ pointed out, “will facilitate the coordination of the teaching staff to work on pedagogical content to teach during the course.” Another advantage of this reduced working day in September, a month that is still hot, is that the schedule will be that of “best thermal comfort”.

Asked what will happen to families who cannot pick up their children at 1:00 p.m. or after the dining room, if there will be extracurricular in the afternoon, Cambray has stated that Educació will finance that hour that goes from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and that it will be used for leisure activities organized by the centers.

The department has informed the directors of the centers this morning, shortly before the press conference. In fact, according to the ACN agency, the management of the Baldiri Reixac school, where the announcement took place, has assured that they did not know that Aragonès and Cambray were going to announce this change and they found out during the press conference.

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Cambray has said that his department had carried out “informal” consultations with families, management teams and teachers and that from now on he will speak with unions and “with whomever is necessary”. From unions to families, the Government is reproached for this change in the calendar has not passed through the School Council of Catalonia as usual.

This modification of the calendar does not alter the dates of school pre-registration.