The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has announced this Monday that as of next year the public schools of the region will remain open during the holidays Christmas and Easter, as well as bridges and the days prior to the start of the course from September 1.
Thus, students in the 2nd cycle of Early Childhood Education (3-6 years) and Primary (6-12 years) will be able to go to their schools on these dates if their parents need it, where they can carry out free reinforcement activities, sports and art .
“The regional government is going to be by the side of the families to help them face the day to day, and to reconcile with the care of the children”, indicated the president during her visit to the works of the new public IES Blanca Fernández Ochoa, in the Madrid neighborhood of Montecarmelo, whose execution is at 70% and which will house a thousand students.
As Díaz Ayuso has explained, the measure will come into force as of January 2024 and in order to carry it out, agreements will be signed with the municipalities, owners of these buildings.
Along the lines of “being available to families, and especially those with greater economic difficulties”, Díaz Ayuso has also advanced another measure that will serve to “promote equality among all students”: the granting of aid to the latter to do extracurricular activities.
“No student is going to stop visiting museums, going to the theater, participating in excursions or learning an instrument due to lack of financial resources,” he has ruled. For both measures, the Community of Madrid calculates to allocate 12 million euros and reach 200,000 beneficiaries.
Added to these advances is the extension of the reduction of ratios in Madrid classrooms. The Community of Madrid already began last September with the drop in ratios in the classes of the 1st of the second cycle of Early Childhood Education, which have 20 students compared to 25 the previous year. The measure will be extended to the 2nd year of Early Childhood Education, in addition to beginning its implementation in ESO, starting with 1st, going from 30 students per classroom to 25. In total, from September more than 100,000 students will benefit from this measure, which which represents about 12% of the total.
For its implementation in this current course, the teaching staff was increased by 219 teachers and an investment in educational infrastructure of more than 1.3 million euros was made with the aim of adapting the spaces. For the next 2023/24, it is expected that around 650 new teachers will have to be incorporated.
