The President of the Government of Spain meets with representatives of the Early Years Education Labour Platform

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, has held a meeting at Moncloa Palace with representatives of the Early Years Education Labour Platform (PLEI). During the meeting, which was also attended by the Minister for Education, Vocational Training and Sports, Milagros Tolón, the president listened to the main demands of the Platform, which brings together staff from nursery schools, who are calling for improvements to their working conditions, increased funding for education for children aged 0-3, and a network of public, universal and free centres, amongst other measures.

Pedro Sánchez thanked these professionals for their hard work and commitment and emphasised the important role that early years education plays as a driver of equality of opportunities, as well as the need to focus on the quality of these centres, beyond their role as a means of supporting work-life balance.

The President assured them of the Government's commitment to continue working towards making early years education (0-3) a universal, state-funded and free educational stage for all families, regardless of their income or where they live. In this regard, he emphasised that the Government has invested 670 million euros to strengthen the first stage of early years education and has created more than 45,000 new free state nursery places, bringing the early years enrolment rate up to 56 per cent. Furthermore, the Ministry of Education is working on updating the regulations governing these centres, proposing significant improvements not only to pupil-teacher ratios but also to educational facilities.

Finally, the president emphasised that improving the recognition, quality and scope of this educational stage also requires the commitment of other administrative bodies; he therefore called upon the Autonomous Communities to fully exercise their assigned powers in the field of education and to utilise all the resources transferred to them by the State for educational purposes.

Non official translation