Controversy in Ramiro de Maetzu: Ayuso places the general public heart's services on the service of a brand new worldwide faculty | Madrid News | EUROtoday

Starting subsequent yr, the Community of Madrid will host an Accredited European School (EEA), which is able to present a homogeneous and comparable academic provide for the youngsters of European Union officers. However, the middle won’t have its personal services. It can be a faculty inside a faculty: the plan is for the brand new college students and academics to make use of the Ramiro de Maeztu buildings. Since the challenge turned identified, concern has unfold by means of the corridors of a number one public schooling establishment in Madrid. Where the Ministry of Education sees a possibility for enrichment for college kids, the SOS Ramiro platform denounces that the arrival of the brand new heart will imply “the segregation of the students” and “decrease the spaces, resources and capacities” of the unique. In truth, the representatives on the School Council of the households and the AMPA have formally expressed their disagreement with the “opacity” with which the Community has proceeded, and their discomfort that their opinion has not been counted.

It all begins with a communication despatched by the varsity to households. “For our students, the EEA will mean living with classmates from other countries and getting to know other cultures,” defends the textual content relating to the choice to supply the European curriculum at Ramiro de Maeztu from ages 7 to 18, ending with the European Baccalaureate. which permits entry to universities all through the Union. “For the center, acquire a European dimension, based on multiculturalism and enjoy an improvement in the facilities,” he continues concerning the initiative, which is able to start subsequent yr with lessons within the first and second years of Primary and first yr of Secondary Schools in European Schools ( equal to sixth grade of Primary), and can be expanded in successive years, together with Early Childhood from the 2025-2026 educational yr. “The operation of the center will not change with the EEA, the number of units, students, teachers, etc. will be maintained.”

This argument, nevertheless, is accompanied by knowledge that worries a couple of household. The arrival of the brand new college students, it’s detailed, will drive us to reorganize areas on the highest flooring of pavilion A and create multipurpose school rooms, which “will be for common use”: the concept is to begin by creating a minimum of six Primary school rooms, and adapt areas interiors and exteriors, as said in a public contract of November 2023. In addition, the academics, civil servant academics certified within the English language, could have a differentiated Head of Studies. And the brand new heart throughout the Ramiro can be open to college students who are usually not kids of workers from EU establishments, though the registration process shouldn’t be detailed.

“The school is overcrowded and no more students are entering,” the SOS Ramiro platform reacted to the announcement by means of a press release. “Common spaces (libraries, sports rooms, other multipurpose classrooms) are intended to be used to house these students,” she continued. “This measure will mean the segregation of the students, with, on the one hand, public students, and, on the other, the children of EU officials and other international organizations who will have their own classrooms, their own teachers. and its own head of studies,” he added. “They are transforming Ramiro and, little by little, they are going to privatize it, since students who want to enter European schools who do not have the profile of children of EU officials will foreseeably have to pay high fees.”

However, the Community of Madrid confused throughout a unprecedented faculty council held on Tuesday in Ramiro that the character of the brand new faculty can be public and free. The estimate for the following course, it was stated in that quote, “is to start with a reduced number of students.” An audit can be carried out within the autumn to determine whether or not the brand new faculty acquires the European standing it seeks.

The FAPA Francisco Giner de los Ríos is following the scenario very carefully. “We lack information, but we are very attentive,” says its president, Mari Carmen Morrillas after the suspension, this Friday, of the opinions fee convened within the School Council to report on this matter. What Morrillas is obvious about is that Ramiro de Maeztu “is a public center where free education is provided and that is how it should continue to be.” She additionally fears “the coexistence of two different education systems”, in reference to the European and Spanish fashions.

However, the Community of Madrid, promoter of the challenge, solely sees benefits in opening a brand new faculty inside Ramiro. “In this resource, which will be located in the Ramiro de Maeztu public center and will function as another section within its facilities, any student can enroll, although these schoolchildren from the EU will have priority,” the Ministry of Education explains. . “All Ramiro de Maeztu students will live together as students of the same educational space, carrying out joint activities, including extracurricular activities, thereby promoting reciprocal cultural enrichment in a multilingual and multicultural context,” they level out. And they add: “It will be a section within the public center, like those that already exist for English, German or International Baccalaureate at Ramiro.”

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