Valencia Remembers Rafael Altamira’s Reforms for Schools and Teachers. Valencia authorities are addressing teachers’ demands amid a strike. Salaries, working conditions, and the legacy of Rafael Altamira’s reforms are on the agenda. Education issues are once again in the regional spotlight.
Debates over the state and funding of public schools have intensified in the Valencia Community. Amid a protracted teachers' strike, regional authorities are discussing union demands for higher salaries, reduced workloads, and better working conditions. The focus has turned to the ideas and reforms of Rafael Altamira, who over a century ago sought to change Spain’s education system.
Rafael Altamira, a renowned lawyer and educator from Alicante, led the country’s primary education sector at the start of the 20th century. In 1911, he faced severe funding shortages, low teacher salaries, and overcrowded classrooms. Altamira succeeded in raising the minimum teacher salary to 1,000 pesetas per year and proposed splitting large classes into groups by age and knowledge level. To achieve this, he introduced the so-called “class splitting” and promoted assistants to full teaching positions.
A key part of his reforms was improving schools’ material resources and sanitary conditions, which was particularly relevant for rural areas. However, not all planned measures were implemented—the government and parliament of the time preferred to allocate funds to military rather than education needs. Despite this, Altamira’s approach set a benchmark for subsequent generations of administrators.
Today, a hundred years later, the issues raised by Altamira are once again relevant for Spanish schools. Teachers are demanding staff increases, smaller class sizes, and higher salaries. The authorities in Valencia are in negotiations with unions, while the region's Minister of Education, María del Carmen Orti Ferre, is preparing to visit an exhibition dedicated to Rafael Altamira at the Alicante Archive. The question of budget priorities and the role of education in the country's development has once again become a topic of public debate.
At the same time, debates continue over language policy in the region's schools. Recently, the High Court of Valencia upheld parents' right to choose the language of instruction, an important decision amid teachers’ protests and ongoing discussions of reforms. More details on the court ruling can be found in the article about parents’ right to choose the language of instruction.
Rafael Altamira was not only a reformer, but also one of the first to insist that spending on education is an investment in the country's future. His ideas on budget priorities and the social role of schools still resonate in Spanish society. According to RUSSPAIN, in recent years education spending in Spain remains below the EU average, and the issues of modernizing schools and supporting teachers are regularly debated in parliament. Amid strikes and new challenges for the education system, Altamira's experience is once again relevant in the search for solutions.
