Oriol Junqueras, president of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), has proposed cross-party expert teams to lead Catalonia’s Department of Education for eight or 12 years, regardless of changes in the Generalitat, Catalonia’s executive government.

For pupils, families and teaching staff, the proposal would seek to give education policy and funding greater continuity after recent strikes and an incident that prevented Catalonia from taking part in the PISA international assessment report. It is a political proposal, not an announced change to the education system.

Parliament would validate long-term education teams

In an interview with Europa Press reported by ARA, Junqueras said the agreement should involve political parties of democratic tradition, school management teams, unions, teachers, and social and economic representatives.

The teams would be selected for their professional standing and trust within the sector, rather than political affiliation, and would guide the Department of Education under an agreed plan validated by Parliament.

“This can be agreed upon and there is no need to constantly change the Education teams, resulting in three different councillors every five years,” Junqueras said.

Junqueras said the plan should include resources guaranteed for its full eight or 12-year term. He estimated that an agreement could be reached within one or two years.

Funding commitment and union response

Junqueras proposed committing a set share of public funding to affected sectors. If annual budgets could not be approved, he said credit-extension decrees should secure the necessary funding.

  • Education teams would serve for eight or 12 years.
  • Parliament would validate the personnel and agreed plan.
  • Junqueras said the agreement could be implemented in one or two years.

USTEC spokesperson Iolanda Segura said the education community needed to be listened to rather than offered new formulas. She cited what she described as longstanding underfunding and said the measures needed to avoid another PISA-related problem were already known, but required political will to implement them.

Junqueras also said similar long-term agreements could be used for infrastructure, renewable energy and housing. For rail, he called for maintenance of the existing network and more kilometres of conventional railway track.

Reported by Source Text Link, ARA, russpain.com, Jessy Miller, Diana Silva, catalannews.com, Marc Toro, Xavi Tedó, Pedro Ruiz Claveria, europapress.es, Agencia Europa Press, CatalunyaPress.es, Diari ARA.