Related news
The Covid-19 pandemic has condemned nearly 1,000 private early childhood education centers to closure. This is how the Association of Autonomous Private Education Centers (ACADE) with official data from the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training that reflect that this type of educational center has gone from being 5,362 in the 2019-2020 academic year, to 4,415 in the 2020-2021 academic year.
The loss, which accounts for 18% of private nurseries, has a social impact and is that, according to this association, the closure of these centers has an impact on job loss, “mostly female.” It is estimated that some 10,000 people, mostly women, have lost their job since 2020.
“These are the official data, but the unofficial ones will be much worse,” he denounces Ignacio Grimá, president of the children’s sector of ACADE who warns that, if the Government’s plan to launch 65,000 public education places from zero to three years continues, “our centers will disappear.”
Although the immediate cause of the closure of these centers has been the pandemic, Grimá assures that the persistent fall in the birth rate is a problem they have to deal with in this type of situation. According to the data of National Institute of Statistics (INE), from 2011 to 2020 the decrease in the birth rate is 28.3%, something that is reflected in the number of potential nursery school students.
Currently, the sector is experiencing a very complex situation. Not only because of the reduction of minors enrolled in school due to the pandemic, but because they were left out of aid due to the exceptional situation of Covid-19. They also coexist with “unfair competition” from centers that advertise themselves as nursery schools without being so. Play centers, day mothers or playgrounds that “are not regulated” and that the Administration “does not control”.
65,000 public places
Added to all this is the Government’s plan to launch a large offer of free early childhood education places from 0 to 3 years old. Project “unviable”, according to the employer, and that is not counting on the private sector for its implementation.
According to the data of Data and Figures Report for the 2018-2019 academic year, published by the Ministry of Education, in Early Childhood Education (1st and 2nd cycle) private centers take in 205,065 children.
At this educational level, the average cost of the place in public centers amounts to 5,692.6 euros per student per year. “If students from private schools had to be enrolled in public nursery schools, educational spending would rise by about 1,167.3 million euros per course“, detailed from ACADE.
From ACADE they insist that they “fully” share the extension of gratuity in this educational phase, but they consider that such an objective should be achieved by counting on the network of private nursery schools.
To analyze the solutions, Grimá does not propose a monopoly of the private sector, but the existence of aid for families who choose to school their children in the 0-3 year segment of private centers. In its meetings with the different administrations (regional and national), Grimá has proposed to finance this cycle through systems of direct aid to families through the school check.
This formula is not new, since it is applied in some autonomies. An example of this is Madrid where this school check exists although it is, according to the employer, somewhat insufficient for the costs they have to cover due to the pandemic.
They have also proposed the existence of tax advantages for those families that enroll their children under two years of age. They understand that the concert, As in Primary or Secondary, it is “unviable” due to the type of schools: very small and local.
Follow the topics that interest you
Reference-www.elespanol.com