The president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, announced this Monday that childhood education from 0 to 3 years old will be free in the Valencian Community. The measure will be a reality for the 2024-202 academic year and will make a total of 72,000 places available to students.
"It is the basic and fundamental moment to begin to eliminate the inequalities of our girls and boys, considering it as a complete and unitary cycle," explained Mazón, who announced the measure after meeting with the members of the working group of which Various educational associations are part of it to develop universal free education at this educational stage.
Mazón, who pointed out that it is an "electoral and personal commitment", explained that the Consell is betting on education from 0 to 3 years "that will allow freedom of choice and will make all existing resources available to families." The system will be a mixed public-private collaboration so that families "can freely choose where they want to take their children."
The president of the Generalitat Valenciana, who always focuses on administrative simplification, has indicated that a “versatile system” will be created that throughout the entire school year will contemplate “ups and downs so there is no need to wait to the month of September.” In this sense, he has declared that “at any time families will have the free decision to go to an early childhood education center at any time during the course.”
Currently there are 21,000 children who have 100% free tuition in this age group in the Valencian Community, but now the Generalitat Valenciana will extend this measure to 72,000 students.
The head of the Consell has also explained that the Generalitat Valenciana is already working on a budget modification of more than 30 million euros to implement the extra resources for this last quarter so that free education can be launched and addressed in this group of people. age. The public budget for Education in this age group will go, as he explained, from 87 million euros to more than 160 million.
Today's meeting was attended by the Minister of Education, Universities and Employment, José Antonio Rovira, and representatives of the Valencian Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FVMP), Union of Educational Cooperatives (UCEV); Federation of Teaching Centers of Valencia (FECEVAL), Association of Education and Management, Association of Autonomous Private Teaching Centers (ACADE), Salvem 0-3 Association, Gonzalo Anaya Confederation, Valencian Confederation of Associations of Parents and Students (COVAPA ), and the National Catholic Confederation of Parents and Parents of Students (CONCAPA).
