The European debt crisis may empty out schools in farming communities in northwestern Spain.
Children aged between six and twelve will be grouped together in schools in the rural parts of Galicia from September, the regional government of north western Spain has said, as education costs are reined in.
Spanish regional governments fund health and education services, and are being asked to cut costs as Prime Minister Rajoy seeks to reduce the country’s debt load.
Galicia proposes to group pupils from smaller village schools to form classes of at least 15 students, or at least 18 students for the first years of primary education. This will mean as many as 300 teachers and teaching assistants will lose their jobs, according to teachers’ unions, Faro de Vigo reports.
Comisiones Obreras, one of Spain’s main trade unions, has accused the regional government of the Partido Popular, the party of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, of proposing to take education in Galicia back 40 years, here in El Pais.