The Junta has announced that they will begin reducing the student-teacher ration in early years and mixed age classrooms.
With the aim of improving the education system, the changes will begin in classes of three year olds and then hopefully expand up through the school system.
The number of students in classrooms is set to fall from 25, which is the number suggested by the central government for the whole country, to just 22.
Announced today but confirmed by Carmen Castillo with unions last July the reduction will allow teachers to pay more attention to each student, this should directly improve academic attainment and quality of learning.
It is also believed that the measure will ‘benefit teachers’.
The Spanish admissions process begins on March 1 and it is then that authorities will determine the number of pupils in each school year and, where necessary, increase the number of classes so that schools comply with the new lower ratios.
The Junta believes that it will need to create over 100 new first year of preschool classes to accommodate its proposed ratio.
Early years classes are not the only ones lowering their staff to student ration; in mixed age classrooms the number of pupils will also decrease.
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Classes with those who have special needs but are in the same cycle or stage will reduce by two pupils, to 13, and those with children in different cycles or stages will lower from 13 to 11.
A solution has also been published for schools which do not have enough space to increase the number of classes they offer – in these cases, the ratio will be allowed to remain at 25 students per class and the Junta will increase the institution’s teachers and staff.
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