The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, announced on Thursday that all new public early childhood and primary schools built in the region will have mandatory split days and will teach the 1st and 2nd years of compulsory secondary education (ESO). The measure, which will be implemented from next school year, is part of a series of initiatives aimed at extending the school day with hours in the morning and afternoon in these stages of training.
During the debate on the state of the region in the Madrid Assembly, the president explained that this commitment by the regional executive to the split day – as opposed to the continuous day – aims to “fight against school dropout, improve student results, their rest or their eating habits, as well as combat loneliness, addictions or the possible influence of youth gangs.
This action, which aims to extend to younger high school students, aims, as Díaz Ayuso indicates, to facilitate the reconciliation of family and professional life and to guarantee to parents that their children are taken care of in their school environment.
The new centres that will be built will thus become public schools for preschool, primary and 1st and 2nd years of compulsory secondary education (CEIPSO) and will join the ten centres in the region that already offer these same stages and courses, with whose communities the educational establishments will ensure that they also adopt the split day.
For their part, the thirty CEIPSOs that teach the four courses of the complete secondary cycle and that already have an intensive day will propose new activities with the aim that students who have more difficulty finding alternatives in the afternoon can spend more hours in their school. In addition, the Ministry of Education, Science and Universities will publish the necessary instructions so that public schools that currently have a split schedule cannot switch to an intensive schedule from the next school year 2025/26.
