To the Ministry of Education, Science, Universities and Vocational Training

By means of this document, the educational community and the signatory entities wish to express our most profound rejection of the design and implementation of the current “Aulas Senda” model in the Galician education system, as we consider them an openly segregating measure and a clear setback in the rights of the most vulnerable students.

1. Lack of transparency in the presentation of the Inclusion Strategy

We must publicly denounce the lack of transparency with which the Xunta de Galicia has treated this figure. In the meeting recently held regarding the Galician Strategy for Inclusive Education, the ‘Aulas Senda’ were the only point that was deliberately overlooked without offering any explanation.

Today we understand with total clarity the reason for that silence: the Xunta was aware that it was introducing a resource that breaks with the basic principles of inclusive education, hiding from the educational community a model that returns students with specific needs outside the mainstream classroom.

2. A segregatory measure that violates the regulatory and international framework

The “Senda Classrooms”, in their current format, constitute a form of camouflaged segregation that contravenes legal frameworks and international recommendations on inclusion: Incompatibility with UNESCO and the SDGs: UNESCO defines inclusive education as the right of all students to learn together in the same environment, guaranteeing their presence, participation, and joint progress. Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) of the 2030 Agenda demands inclusive, equitable, and quality education, which is incompatible with the creation of segregated spaces within schools themselves.

Non-compliance with the Galician Decree on Attention to Diversity: Decree 229/2011, of December 7, which regulates attention to student diversity in educational centers of the Autonomous Community of Galicia, establishes as a fundamental principle that the schooling of students with specific educational support needs shall take place in the most inclusive environment possible, guaranteeing their integration into the reference group and limiting support outside the classroom to exceptional and justified situations.

Violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Article 24 (ratified by the Spanish State) explicitly prohibits the exclusion of students from the general education system on the grounds of disability or learning difficulties.

3. Our demands

Segregating students by labeling them and separating them from their peers does not resolve support needs; on the contrary, it stigmatizes, harms their social development, and deprives the rest of the student body of the richness of diversity.

Learning together offers opportunities to get to know different ways of communicating, relating, and understanding the world; to build reciprocal bonds, challenge prejudices, and learn to live together in equality. Separation impoverishes these opportunities for the entire educational community.

We ask that you clarify under which legislative article and modalities these classrooms are organized and how you will guarantee the rights to inclusion and real participation, preventing them from consolidating separate paths, and without contradicting Article 24 of the Committee’s interpretation, in the
UN Convention, which provides the basis for the criticism of segregation even within a school.
mainstream.

For all these reasons, WE DEMAND:

1. The redefinition and transformation of the Senda Classrooms

So that they stop functioning as spaces for separating students and become accessible resources for sensory and emotional regulation, open to all students who need them at specific times, regardless of whether they have a diagnosis or specific educational support needs. They must be conceived as authentic multisensory classrooms, present in mainstream schools and at the service of the entire school community, where any child can find a space for well-being, self-regulation, and support when they need it.

2. That these spaces are not used to school or keep students with special educational needs separated, nor to justify their systematic removal from the mainstream classroom.

Their purpose must be to foster the participation, autonomy, and well-being of all students, not to replace inclusive educational attention or become a resource linked to obtaining more funding in exchange for separating certain children from their reference group.

3. The provision of material resources to schools, specific training, and advice for teachers to ensure the appropriate use of these spaces from an inclusive perspective.

Creating classrooms is not enough: it is essential to provide adapted sensory materials, training on sensory processing, self-regulation, and emotional support, as well as guidance so that these resources are used with clear pedagogical criteria and for the benefit of all students who need them.

4. The actual provision of human and material resources in mainstream classrooms.

Strengthening Therapeutic Pedagogy, Hearing and Language teams, and care staff to address diversity where it belongs: in the reference group and within an inclusive educational environment.

5. Reducing student-to-teacher ratios per classroom.

Encouraging specialist staff to enter the mainstream classroom for co-teaching, communicative modeling, real-world application of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and on-site adaptation of materials.

6. Reducing student-to-teacher ratios per classroom.

To allow for more personalized attention and the creation of a truly welcoming school climate.

7. Real transparency and dialogue with the educational community

Before implementing measures that directly affect the rights of students, ensuring the participation of families, teachers, and entities linked to inclusion.

We do not want spaces that separate, but resources that include. We do not want classrooms intended to label students, but environments that respond to the diversity of needs of all girls and boys. Sensory and emotional regulation is a human need, not a privilege reserved for those who have a diagnosis.

For all these reasons, the undersigned entities demand an urgent dialogue forum with the administration to address this issue and we state:

No to segregation in our schools. For a Galician public school system that is equitable and truly inclusive.

In Ourense, on October 25, 2026

Signed by AGMAL, AGAMPI, AGOEP and Quererla es Crearla