Parents charged with son's absenteeism

• Couple faces 'family abandonment' charges for son's continuous non-schooling
• Local Police duties include combating truancy

LA LÍNEA (Cádiz) -- Local Police recently made the first charges for school absenteeism of the current school year. The parents of a boy who was not attending school on a regular basis were charged with 'family abandonment' (translatable to 'neglect of parental duty' in UK terms) and are due to appear in court when the Children Protection Prosecutor in Cádiz studies the case. The Law of Legal Protection of Minors establishes that any person or authority is aware that a minor is not being scholarised, or is continually absent during class time in a school period, and is between during the obligatory school ages of 6 to 16, is obliged to report it to the competent authority (Local Police, School, Council). One of the Local Police's duties is to try to locate and identify a child who is on the streets without the knowledge or consent of its parents or school.

Spain, among EU countries who most lowered teachers' salaries

SPAIN – A recent report from the European Commission reveals that teachers’ salaries came down between 13% and 17% in Spain between 2009 and 2014, which places her in the lower pay group with Ireland, Romania, Slovenia and Iceland. “It is not surprising that the most significant reductions happened in those countries that were most impacted by the financial crisis,” the document points out, adding that the most severe reductions were registered in Greece, where teachers’ wages dropped by 40%. Spain was in a group where teachers reach their maximum level in the medium-to-long-term period of time that ranges from age 27 in Turkey to 39 in this country. Other reports state that Spain ‘lost’ over 24,000 teachers in two years, and that the Ministry of Education is planning to make changes to the law that will allow it to make further reductions. Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that Spain is pretty much at the bottom of the annual PISA report that comes from the OECD (about which more when the next one comes up).