School is out

THOUSANDS of children returned to school last Friday only to discover that there will be no classes on Monday as teachers were going on strike. Local school children have effectively had no classes since June and it looks as if September is going to be marred by industrial action. Tomorrow’s strike could just be the start of a long bout of industrial action over plans by the Balearic government to introduce their new three language education system. English and Spanish are given greater preference over Catalan but this has put the government on a head-on collision with teachers who claim that they do not have the necessary resources to put the system into action. I think it is very sad when teachers are forced to take industrial action because at the end of the day it is the pupils who will suffer. This dispute needs to be resolved quickly because there is a danger that local children will find that they are at the bottom of the class compared to the rest of the country. Both sides must be prepared for a compromise deal.