Early Childhood Education | Education will create 832 public places for Infants next year and 9 new municipal schools in three years

by time news

Infant students in a classroom at the Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles school in El Esparragal. / Nacho García / AGM

The Ministry will be in charge of the new network until 2024, and after that it will delegate the management to the municipalities

Fuensanta Carreras

The Ministry of Education will start the new plan to expand the supply of public nursery places with only 834 new places for children under 1 and 2 years of age. The bulk of the investment sent by the Ministry is concentrated in 2023, when the implementation of 2,302 positions is expected. Finally, Primary schools will not accommodate 2-year-old students in their classrooms in the next course, and we will have to wait for the next one. These are some of the novelties of the plan to expand places in the first stage of Infant with 4,000 new positions, financed by the Ministry and developed in the Region by the Ministry, which was presented this Monday by the head of Education, Isabel Campuzano; and the general director of Centers, Jesús Pellicer.

The Ministry of Education has more than 40 million euros that must be allocated to the creation of almost 4,000 public places in the first stage of Early Childhood Education, from 0 to 3 years until 2024. The investment will be a shock to the current limited offer of places in the Region, which only covers 20% of Murcian children in that age group, with the second lowest rate of schooling at that stage in the country. The money has to begin to be spent this year and Education has designed a plan to increase the places of Infant through three modalities. The next academic year is expected to create 832 positions; in September 2023, they will be almost double, 2,302. The last year, in 2024, they will add 805.

The plan designed to increase the supply of public places for children contemplates three modalities. The first is the schooling of 2-year-old children in Infant and Primary schools, which currently only welcome children from 3 years of age. The Education plans go through enabling places for 2-year-old children in about 30 schools, but it will not be the next course, but we will have to wait for the next one. The forecast happens because this park of centers increases in subsequent years, but it is not certain, since the investment planned by the Ministry ends in 2024.

The bulk of the investment is concentrated in 2023, with 2,302 new positions

The planned plan to increase the supply of public places from 0 to 3 years old includes two other legs: the creation of nine new public nursery schools in Archena, Blanca, Calasparra, Caravaca, Cehegín, Ceutí, Cieza, Las Torres de Cotillas, Lorquí, Murcia and Yecla, and lastly, the assumption of ownership and expansion of the child care centers and points (CAI and PAI) distributed by different municipalities, which would become public nurseries dependent on Education until 2024, which is when it ends the plan presented to date by the Ministry.

Taking that date into account, Campuzano insisted that the Ministry of Education will take charge of the new places only until that year, when it will delegate the management to the municipalities.

The nine new municipal schools have been assigned a budget of six million euros for their construction, and 17 for the staff during those first years. They will accommodate 492 children under 3 years of age.

The 36 CAI and PAI that are added to the network of municipal schools will allow the creation of some 3,000 Infant places in 14 municipalities. The Nursery and Primary schools, for their part, will host 412 2-year-old students, which will require adaptation works to be carried out in the centers worth 4.5 million.

Minister Campuzano, satisfied with the conciliation facilities that the creation of 4,000 children’s places will provide families, insisted that the role of the regional Administration is limited to organization, construction and start-up, and if it does not receive more funding by the Ministry, in 2024 it will delegate the management and spending to the municipalities.

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