The situation “arising” from Loss of more than 3,000 teachers and professors “This will be regularized as soon as possible.” This was reiterated this Tuesday by the Minister of Educational Development and Vocational Training of the Government of Andalusia, Carmen Castillo, Following the extraordinary call launched this Monday, 3,051 additional places are added to fill vacant positions in schools and institutes compared to the more than 1,000 initially announced.
1,790 replacements were requested for teacher layoffs in Infant and Primary. In addition, 1,261 other positions have become vacant in all teaching bodies due to retirements, service commissions, unit growth and reinforcements. In total, 3,051 places have been announced. On Wednesday, they are assigned and on Monday, they are incorporated, according to data provided by the ministry to Europa Press.
In an interview with Canal Sur Television collected by Europa Press, the Minister of Educational Development and Vocational Training specified that a total of 717,024 students in the second cycle of early childhood, primary and special education Classes begin this Tuesday, the 10th, in 2,741 educational centers. On the 16th, it will be the turn of secondary school, baccalaureate, vocational training and adult continuing education students (883,357 students), while on the 20th, the curriculum will begin in the special regime courses (Music, Dance, Plastic Arts, Design, Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, Drama and Languages), with 84,071 students.
In total, 1,796,455 students will start their courses in September and nearly 130,000 teachers in 7,247 centersboth public, subsidized and private, according to data provided by the Junta de Andalucía.
With these figures, the Minister of Educational Development and Vocational Training of the Council, Carmen Castillo, drew attention to the fact that the course begins in Andalusia with 25,000 fewer children that in 2023/2024 and “for the first time” we will also see this decrease in students in Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO) – which already started last year, although very slightly – and in the Baccalaureate.
This new sector is marked by a new drop in staff numbers due to the falling birth rate, being the largest drop in the historical series at the start of the course. In the case of the ESO and Baccalaureate More than 9,000 students are missing this course. Thus, since the 2018/19 academic year, the entire education system has lost around 107,000 students, which represents a drop of almost 9%.
Despite the decrease in the number of students, the Andalusian Government “continues its commitment” to consolidate the resources added to the system and to incorporate new ones through a permanent social dialogue to improve attention of students.
Thus, this year, the Andalusian education system supported by public funds has a teaching staff made up of almost 123,000 professionals, of which around 107,000, or almost 87%, are teachers and professors from public educational centers and just over 16,000, or 13%, from concerted centers.
Third salary increase
Likewise, from this month of September, the third salary increase of the agreement to equalize the salaries of Andalusian teachers with the national average, unanimously reached in the sectoral tables, which benefits both teachers in the public and subsidized networks. This historic salary equalization agreement, which ends in 2025, represents a total investment of more than 200 million euros.
In a context of rising prices in almost all sectors, the Andalusian Government has allocated approximately 886 million aid to Andalusian families in schools. It includes aspects such as scholarships, free first cycle of nursery school, bonuses for the catering service and other complementary services, school transport or free textbooks in compulsory education, with an investment of more than 105 million that allows more than 481,000 students to use school textbooks this year and benefits a total of almost 900,000 students.
Additional services increase in this course with 26 additional centers offering morning classes, 14 new centers approved for school canteens and three other centers will offer after-school activities. In total, 2,323 centers will offer families one or more additional services, 98 more than in 2018. Thus, 76.3% of centers have a classroom in the morning, 68.4% of school cafeteria and 56.3% have extracurricular activities. The forecast of school canteen users is approximately 190,600 students, including more than 117,000 in morning classes and more than 81,300 in after-school classes. School transport will be used by 96,500 students.
Regarding the bonusAccording to estimates from the Ministry of Educational Development and Vocational Training, more than 67% of families benefit from a bonus in the school canteen (42% of which are completely free), 56% benefit from a bonus in the morning class and more than 62% in extracurricular activities.
In terms of infrastructure, with a view to the 2024/25 academic year, a total of 350 works in educational centers, with a budget of 124.2 million euros. Nearly 150,000 students enrolled in these centers will benefit from these interventions and their facilities will be expanded or improved.
New centers
These actions include seven new centers: the Bahía de Almerimar nursery and primary school, in El Ejido (Almería); the new institute in Albolote (Granada); the new building for the training cycles of the IES Los Cerros de Úbeda, in Úbeda (Jaén); two institutes, in Marbella and Mijas, both in the province of Málaga; and the Integrated Aerospace Reference Centre of La Rinconada and the IES Hienipa of Alcalá de Guadaíra, both in the province of Seville.
It is completed by 30 extensions and adaptations of centers to meet school needs; 112 works carried out during the summer months for the creation and adaptation of spaces and accessibility works; 45 actions of the Bioclimatization and Photovoltaic program which culminates this year for a total of 454 educational centers; ten actions of passive measures air conditioning (replacing windows, placing slats, creating porches and shades, planting vegetation or improving the envelope by protecting roofs, among others) and fourteen actions to enlarge spaces for training cycles.
