Hundreds of Spanish teachers, students, parents protest

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Hundreds of Spanish teachers, students, parents protest

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Protesters formed a human chain around the education council in the Spanish capital.

22 September,2011 10:58 am

Hundreds of secondary public school teachers formed a human chain around the education council in Madrid on the second day of strike action to protest against austerity measures taken by the regional government.Joining hands, teachers, many of them dressed in green t-shirts, surrounded the block where the education council stands. Students who believe the cuts will affect the quality of their education also joined the protest.Public secondary schools around the country cancelled classes as teachers stayed away from work angered by budget cuts that will mean they will have to teach two hours more a week and have less time to prepare lessons.This is a robbery. These cuts mean stealing public schools from us, which is an essential right for every citizen. Here we have teachers, but also a lot of fathers, mothers and students, because this is a theft from all of society -- the theft of public schools, secondary school teacher, Enrique, told Reuters.Unions said the measure also meant 13,000 temporary teachers will lose their jobs and join the four million unemployed in Spain, which at 20.9 percent has the European Unions (EU) highest jobless rate.They also said the cuts will undermine the education system, which suffers from one of the highest drop-out rates in Europe with about 30 percent of those leaving school under 16-years of age.Union leaders hoped their protests will convince the regional government to open negotiations.