Teachers begin two-day strike in Madrid

Over 21,000 secondary school teachers from state schools in the Community of Madrid began a two-day strike on Tuesday. The teachers are angry at spending cuts imposed by the regional authority which the labor unions have described as "a brutal attack on public education," among which are the "decision to not contract 3,200 classroom helpers, the suppression of tutorial hours and compensation classes, a reduction in English, Maths and Spanish classes and the failure to impart classes in laboratories in physics, chemistry and biology." Unions argue that with fewer teachers, there are more students in every class and that teachers are having to impart classes in subjects other than their own, with subsequent negative results for students. The strike will be held over this Tuesday and Wednesday, although plans to extend it into a third day had to be called off as the Madrid regional education department said it was illegal as it had been announced out of time. Teachers in the region of Galicia will strike on Wednesday and on Sept. 27, while in Navarra all schools will close for two hours on Sept. 26. Although teachers are not striking all over Spain, there are protests at education cuts in a further 10 regions.