/ Town Hall
Wednesday 7th December 2022
CALVIÀ SIGNS AN AGREEMENT WITH THE REGIONAL MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOR THE FREE PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION (2-3 YEARS OLD) OF THE 10 MUNICIPAL NURSERY SCHOOLS
The municipality will extend to the whole day the free pre-school education of the school age stage implemented by the Regional Government
The mayor of Calvià, Alfonso Rodríguez Badal, and the deputy mayor for Education and president of the IMEB, Olga Granados, have signed this morning the agreement with the regional minister of Education and Training, Martí March, to start up the free pre-school education for 2-3-year-old children in municipal nursery schools. A free programme that Calvià Town Hall will implement in the rest of hours, in the 2-3-year-old stage, during the 2022-2023 academic year, thus complementing the initiative of the Government of the Balearic Islands. Thus, the 231 boys and girls between 2 and 3 years old, enrolled in the 10 public municipal nursery schools of Calvià, will be provided this course with a totally free of charge education, since they will have the 4 teaching hours subsidised by the Regional Government, and the remaining hours (early morning school, dining room, playroom) will be 100% subsidised by the Town Hall during this academic year.
In Calvià, all nursery school students registered in the municipality receive a subsidy of between 30 and 70%, depending on the family income, for all age groups and that covers all hours. Now, the Regional Government's initiative will allow, in the 2-3-year-old period, a totally free of charge course this year since municipal subsidies can be used during non-school hours. Children between 1 and 2 years old will continue to receive aid from the municipality.
Calvià applies municipal subsidies to the price estimated 15 years ago, assuming the increases that have been produced year after year, to avoid passing the cost on to families. Throughout the year, the modification of the Ordinance regulating public prices for the provision of services in municipal childcare centres will be considered in order to adapt it to the current situation.
Press release from the Regional Ministry:
The first agreements with public nursery schools in Mallorca for the provision of free education in the (2-3 years old stage) have now been signed.
The regional minister of Education and Vocational Training, Martí March, has today signed the agreements for the free early childhood education (2-3 years) with the mayors of the Town Halls of Santa Maria, Calvià, Sant Llorenç and Marratxí. These are the first agreements with public nursery schools in Mallorca.
Until now, almost all the agreements with the infant education centres of the complementary network of the Islands have been signed, since there are only 2 agreements left to sign out of the 52 that exist in total.
Regarding the public centres, 5 agreements have already been signed: 1 with Vila Town Hall in Ibiza and the 4 today in Mallorca. In total, through these agreements, the free third year of early childhood education is guaranteed to 18 public educational centres in Mallorca and Ibiza. Specifically, Calvià has 10 nursery schools, Santa Maria has 1, Sant Llorenç has 3 and Marratxí has 2.
Counsellor Martí March has highlighted that this initiative means institutionalising a stage that both the LOMLOE and the LEIB consider educational. "I am convinced that the next legislature will be that of the institutionalisation of 0-3 education and this will imply more measures such as improving the situation of workers, amongst others."
The agreement signing of the remaining public nursery schools and the complementary network of the Balearic Islands will continue in the next few days.
Once the agreements have been signed, the payments that allow the free education will be processed as of 1st September 2022, the Regional Ministry will make three payments in advance that correspond to two periods of four months and a last period of two.
In total in the Balearic Islands, to make this measure possible, an investment of 18.6 million per course is expected so that both, public nursery schools and those of the complementary network will receive a contribution of 45,000 euros for each (2-3 years) classroom. This investment will cover the operating expenses of these classrooms during the ordinary school hours in this educational year stage, a minimum of 4 hours for 10 months, which implies an expense per course of 2,500 euros per student, at a rate of 250 euros monthly.
It is expected to reach 5,274 students aged 2-3 years in 160 centres on the Islands. The modules will cover the cost of 293 classrooms of 2-3 years old of public centres and the complementary network. In the 2022-2023 academic year there will be 186 educational centres for 0-3 years, of which 108 are public, 52 private integrated into the complementary network and 26 private.
In addition to the free education for 2-3-year-old children, for this 2022-23 academic year an increase in the number of modules for 0-1 and 1-2 years has also been planned, which means achieving 10,000 euros/unit in the public network (until now it was 7,000 euros) and 5,000 euros/unit in the complementary network (until now it was 2,000 euros). In addition, it includes other improvement measures such as the increase in the staff of the early care teams (EAP), with six more professionals, and the new call for the creation of new public places planned in November 2022.
