- · The Council of Ministers has approved for the Basque Country to distribute 4.7 million euros for the PROA+ program and 1.4 million euros for the Accompaniment Units program.
- · In Education, the total approved investment for all the autonomous communities is 566 million euros distributed in five headings: Program School Code 4.0, the PROA+ Program and the Program of Accompaniment Units; textbooks; and Inclusive Education.
The Government, on the proposal of the Ministry of Education and Professional Training, has approved today to allocate more than 6.2 million euros to the Basque Country to help families and students with difficulties, of the total investment for all the autonomous communities of more than 173 million euros.
The PROA+ programme will have 118 million euros, of which more than 4.7 million euros will be allocated to the Basque Country. The Accompaniment Unit Program has been provided with 55 million euros, of which more than 1.4 million euros for the Basque Country.
The PROA+ educational support and reinforcement program will benefit students from more than 3,000 schools of special educational complexity in all the autonomous communities. With these funds, the centers commit to develop a support plan that includes actions such as reinforcement during school and non-school hours, co-teaching, tutoring, training for families or other activities that seek to avoid early school leaving. In total, between 2021 and 2023, including the item approved today, EUR 360 million will have been allocated to the PROA+ programme.
As for the Accompaniment Units, the objective is to work directly and personalized with students at risk of early abandonment to support them in their educational trajectory from Primary and until the completion of Secondary or Baccalaureate. Between 2021 and 2023, more than 124 million euros will have been invested in all the autonomous communities for the implementation of 1,148 units of this type.
Improve the quality and equity of the education system
These items are part of the investment approved on Tuesday in the Council of Ministers, at the proposal of the Ministry of Education and Professional Training, to improve the quality and equity of the educational system of our country, amounting to 566 million euros, distributed in five items: Program School Code 4.0, the PROA+ Program and the Program of Accompaniment Units; textbooks; and Inclusive Education.
The School Code 4.0 Program will be allocated 298.4 million euros, through the autonomous communities, to train in robotics, programming and new technologies the 5.5 million students of the second cycle of Infant, Primary Education and Secondary Education enrolled in public and concerted centers.
Of this amount, 199 million will be used for programming and robotic equipment in more than 17,000 schools. Another 99.4 million will be for the accompaniment and support of teachers, hiring assistants of technological and pedagogical profiles while advancing the training of teachers.
Last year, some 30 million euros were already allocated for teacher training in this field. In 2024, another 65 million will be distributed for the accompaniment of teachers.
Textbooks and Inclusive Education
In addition, a budget of 58.5 million euros has been approved to help families cope with the cost of textbooks and school materials, including digital materials, for students from publicly funded schools.
Finally, 36 million euros will be allocated to the Territorial Cooperation of Inclusive Education program, which is in addition to the 38 million distributed in 2022, to improve attention to the diversity of students and their specific needs for educational support. The aim is to offer additional staff resources and more training for the centres, as well as support and collaboration between special and ordinary education centres and also the families themselves.
In this regard, Minister Alegría recalled that the Ministry has opened this Monday the deadline to apply for grants for students with specific educational support needs for the 2023-24 academic year. This year, the call, open until September 20, includes for the first time a supplementary aid of 400 euros to cover the additional expenses of the families.