European Trade Union Committee for Education

Following the significant rise of gender violence-related cases and numerous public protests and demonstrations, Spain's political parties finally reached a "historic" €1bn five-year action plan to tackle gender-based violence. The bill was approved in July 2017 by the Spanish Congress which will set up a committee for monitoring the implementation of the program.

Among 200 targeted measures proposed by the national pact, there are several important educational measures, such as provision of the psychological and educational assistance to children of women who are killed by their partners, demand from schools to encourage initiatives to fight sexism and to introduce mandatory subjects on gender equality for promoting fair and shared roles for women and men in the society. Additionally, the action plan foresees the introduction of the feminist movement in the history curriculum and text books.

In spite of the pact called ‘unprecedent’ by the politicians, ETUCE member organisations in Spain, Federación de Enseñanza CC.OO and Federación de Trabajadores de la Enseñanza de la UGT, consider the new bill insufficient to address the gender-based violence at all levels of education. They demand to improve training for teachers to enable them to detect possible cases of gender violence, abuse and maltreatment and to mainstream gender equality in all study subjects in every educational institution.