education
Call for 6% of GDP to be spent on education
Some 600 people, say local police, demonstrated yesterday in Barcelona to call on the Catalan government to spend 6% of GDP on education, or €10 billion. The march, organised by the Marc Unitari de la Comunitat Educativa, began in Universitat square behind a banner that read: “No cuts in public education”.
The protestors say that currently 2.04% of Catalonia’s GDP is spent on education, a figure they say is insufficient to meet the demands placed on the Catalan education system. Taking part in the demonstration that ended in St Jaume square were the CCOO, UGT, Ustec-STEs and CGT unions, as well as Fapac and the Associació de Joves Estudiants de Catalunya.
The spokesman for the Ustec-STEs union, Ramon Font, said that the 2019 budget for education should be €10.5 billion, some 6% of Catalan GDP. Yet, in the last budget less than €5 billion was spent on education.