Government and communities agree to make Selectivity more flexible and facilitate the hiring of teachers to reduce groups

The central government and the autonomous communities have reached a series of agreements to improve the development of the school year, which has started "correctly", as explained by the Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, after a meeting between his portfolio, that of Education and regional governments. The Minister of Education, Isabel Celaá, explained the measures taken, among which stand out that the Selectivity will be made more flexible faced with the difficulties in developing the complete syllabi in this convulsive course and that the hiring of teachers will be facilitated so that the communities can reduce the maximum number of students per classroom.

The Government and the communities believe that the beginning of the course, from the point of view of Public Health, has started well. The latest data on closed classrooms, offered by Celaá at a press conference after the meeting, speak of 2,852 units (classes) closed out of a total of 380,000, which represents 0.73% of the total.

The administrations are aware of the difficulties that can be caused for the 2nd year of Baccalaureate to comply with the syllabi in a course with so much uncertainty and online teaching. The teachers were already demanding measures to be able to program and have certainties. They have been heard. "The model will be similar to last year, it will adapt to extraordinary circumstances and we will do so immediately," Minister Celaá explained.

It will also facilitate the hiring of teachers due to the difficulties that some communities are encountering, Celaá explained, to find teachers who meet the necessary conditions to teach. Thus, "in an exceptional and limited way and until the end of the pandemic academic year," regional governments may hire teachers who have not completed the Master's degree in Secondary, compulsory under normal circumstances, if the usual internship pockets have been exhausted. This circumstance, the minister has commented, is occurring in some autonomous communities, also aggravated by the suspension of teaching competitions last summer due to the pandemic.