Ministry of Education to Support Rural Schools with Lowered Ratios and Increased Staff

The general secretary of Education and Vocational Training, María Pilar Pérez, announced this Monday the support of the Ministry of Education, Science and Vocational Training for Rural Schools, for which the lowering of ratios in the second cycle will continue next year. for children and as a novelty in incomplete centers and mixed groups, especially in rural centers. The ratio will also be lowered by 2 students per line, for which it is planned to increase the staff of these centers by 50 teachers.

In an appearance at the Extremadura Assembly, Pérez announced that measures have already been implemented at the beginning of this course, such as the reduction in the number of students per classroom in Early Childhood Education, starting this course in 3 years, where it has been reduced from 25 to 22 students and will continue in cascade in the next courses.

“We believe that the drop in the birth rate is an opportunity to improve the quality of education and to establish population in the territory,” María Pilar Pérez assured at the parliamentary headquarters, and announced that, as a novelty, “we are working to modify the ratio also in incomplete centers and mixed groups”, which are what basically characterize the rural school, so that there are two students less linearly, so that these students also enjoy the same opportunities as those in urban areas and are attended by the necessary specialist teachers, without forgetting the best attention to diversity.

All of this will mean an increase in the overall functional staff in these centers of fifty more teachers, of which 30 will be for centers in the province of Badajoz and 20 in Cáceres.

In his opinion, “they are measures of common sense and rationality, thinking about our students and our educational professionals, consensual and the result of listening.”