To the street in the middle of the course. This is the situation faced by some thirty teachers from public institutes in Andalusia after receiving notification from the Ministry of Education and Sport informing them of a court ruling that forces them to cease their jobs and expel them. of the job bank created in 2016 due to errors of form in its constitution. A ruling by the Board that has serious consequences for some teachers who have to return, in the middle of the Christmas holidays, to the starting position in their career in public education.
“It is proposed that he be dismissed and expelled from the bilingual bag of Geography and History”. This is how the letter sent by the department directed by Javier Imbroda to some 30 teachers (the council affirms that there are only 23) to comply with the sentence that puts an end to the judicial procedure initiated by a plaintiff who saw his rights curtailed in the constitution of the aforementioned employment exchange five years ago.
As those affected explain, this extraordinary bag was bilingual and for the specialty of Geography and History. Until then, the only requirements that were demanded to be a member was to have the corresponding degree and the B2 level of the foreign language. However, that year the Ministry of Education (then headed by Adelaida de la Calle) decided that those who will be part of it will also present themselves to an opposition.
Errors of form in the constitution of the bags
This meant that those who had passed these tests were placed ahead of those who had not done them. However, such conditions, according to the sentence and those affected, contained errors of form when collected in writing, which led one of the members of the exchange (harmed by the new order of preference) to initiate a judicial process that has ended up agreeing with him and throwing thirty teachers out on the street .
In addition to considering that the court ruling “restores the right to the plaintiff teacher and repeals it to 30”, the affected group charges harshly against the Ministry of Education, which it accuses of “obscurantism” for not having reported the situation to which their jobs were exposed and for not responding to their request for information since they received the notification a few days before the end of the first quarter of the course.
The cessation of their jobs occurred last Monday, December 27, in the middle of the Christmas holidays, so this group of teachers is now out of work, a situation that also harms the secondary schools in which they carried out their work. .
Testimonials
To Diego OrtizFor example, the letter from the counselor arrived on December 20, a week before the termination. In it they informed him that he had to leave his place at the IES Huerta del Rosario , in the Cadiz town of Chiclana, where he has taught for the last five years. “The Board has not given us the right to reply, or to negotiate a way out,” laments this teacher, who also warns that the unions they have turned to have felt “overwhelmed” with the situation and have not been able, for now give an appropriate answer.
At the moment, the only alternative that the council has given them is to transfer them to the ordinary exchange with the time of service accumulated over the years. A situation that is far from what they had until now, because, as Ortiz explains, the possibility of filling a vacancy in such conditions is worse: the duration is shorter and the chances of being called, too.
Also, not everyone is in that ordinary bag. Such is the case of Maria Ortiz , who has worked until a week ago at the IES Fray Luis, from Granada capital, where he occupies a long-term vacancy. The labor advantages provided by being a member of an extraordinary exchange prompted her to “dump” all her time of service in the one that existed since 2016 and not in the ordinary one, which caused her not to be part of the latter since June. “I was digging my own grave,” admits Ortiz, who accuses Education of “negligence.” “He should have informed us that there was a judicial process that could affect our jobs,” he lamented.
And although the mistake was made when the council was in the hands of the PSOE, the affected teachers remember that the current Andalusian government had the opportunity to prevent them when a new extraordinary bag was constituted in 2019, since then the criteria prior to 2016 returned to rule. , that is to say, it was not necessary to appear for some oppositions. “No one told us anything,” says this teacher, who is willing to take the Board to court for this matter that has left her unemployed and “by surprise.”
Five years to regulate the situation
“Internal devastation”. This is how Maite Jimenez-Barrera definesthe situation you have been experiencing since you received the Education letter on December 9. “I have lost five kilos in the last few weeks”, refers this Geography and History teacher, who was part of the staff of the IES Professor Juan Antonio Carrillo Salcedo , in the Sevillian municipality of Moron de la Frontera, until last Monday. It is a compensatory education center, located in an area in need of social transformation, where a good integration has been achieved, to the point that it had been done with a tutoring.
“The Board has had five years to regulate our situation, being aware of the judicial lawsuit that existed on the composition of the extraordinary bag. I feel that my years of professional and work effort have been thrown away,” says this teacher, who accuses the Ministry of Education of “obscurantism” in said matter.
Once in the ordinary bag, they can send it “to any place in Andalusia”, when until now she had the center where she taught near Paradas, the town where she lived. This uncertainty is also suffered by Alejandro Medina , who has been forced to leave his teaching position at the IES Pena del Aguila, in Mancha Real (Jaen). “I couldn’t believe it when I received the letter,” admits this teacher, a native of Granada, but who has been living with his partner in Jaen for years. Now, in the ordinary bag, he considers that, due to his time in service, he will “harm” other colleagues by standing in front of them. “I don’t know when they will call us to fill a vacancy, for how long and where,” he reflects. Medina also criticizes that in the council “they don’t pick up the phones , they
don’t respond to emails and they don’t know how to tell us anything.” They will stop adding service time until they are called to fill a vacancy. An affected director speaks
“They should have waited until the end of the course.” Who pronounces this sentence is Jose Manuel Iglesias , director of the IES Huerta del Rosario , in Chiclana (Cadiz), an institute that has lost one of the teachers best valued by the educational community, as a result of the aforementioned court ruling.
The fact that the mandatory cessation occurs in the middle of the course has broken the organizational schemes of a secondary school located in a deprived area of the Cadiz town. The teacher they have had to do without is Diego Ortiz , who has been teaching at the institute for five years.
“He is not just another interim,” says the director of the Huerta del Rosario, who adds that Ortiz has joined the center by participating in numerous projects, which is why he has the esteem of his colleagues, students and families, who have regretted the decision of the courts and the Board in a protest organized days before the Christmas holidays.
“Here we work with some students who have very special characteristics, for this reason a specific teaching profile is required, with which Diego Ortiz fit in very well,” explains Iglesias. The teacher who has been unemployed since last Monday was in charge of five groups of 30 ESO students. In addition, he was part of a department, that of Geography and History, which develops numerous initiatives, some of which he was a promoter.
The news of his departure has fallen like “a jug of cold water” in the institute, especially in the students, whom Iglesias fears will be affected “academically and emotionally.” He regrets that the Board has not informed the teachers of the judicial process that existed, which has caused them to be caught “by surprise” and when most of them had made their plans according to the vacancy achieved in the summer.
This center is still waiting for the council to notify them of the person who will replace Ortiz in his position after the holidays. A teacher who will have to “start from scratch” in this institute, where the figure of Ortiz has left his mark.
