More than 800,000 students –specifically a total of 802,198– of Early Childhood, Primary, ESO, Baccalaureate, Vocational Training and Special Education will start today the 2023-2024 school year in the Valencian Community.
In this way, there is a slight increase of 4,030 students compared to last year, 0.50% more, which is mainly explained by the rise in Vocational Training –which exceeds 100,000 students–, since in the first educational stages, a decrease is seen due to lower birth rates.
Of the total number of students, 408,130 will attend centers in the province of Valencia (0.27%); 298,070 in Alicante and 95,998 (0.93%) in Castellón (0.16%). The average ratios are 21 students in Infant and Primary, 24.4 in Secondary and 29 in Baccalaureate. Teachers also grew, reaching 81,736, 3,077 more than the previous year (3.91%).
These are some of the main figures for the 2023-2024 school year, which the Minister of Education, José Antonio Rovira, called, in a press conference, “transitional” due to the electoral process and the change of government.
In the chapter on infrastructures, classes will begin with 13 new educational centers: 2 belong to the province of Castellón (Morella and Almassora), four to the province of Valencia (Sagunto, Gilet, Picassent and Alcàsser) and seven to the province of Alicante (Castella, Dénia, Monóvar, Torrevieja, Cocentaina, Pilar de la Horadada and Mutxamel). Likewise, during the course it is planned that another 9 centers will open their doors: two in Castellón (Sant Mateu and Soneja), four in Valencia (Albalat dels Tarongers, Valencia, Mislata and Ontinyent) and three in Alicante (Teulada, Villajoyosa and Elche).
Regarding the students who will begin the course in barracks or prefabricated classrooms, the counselor states that there are 13 centers in Alicante, 12 in Valencia and eight in Castellón.
Likewise, in educational inclusion and equal opportunities, 33 positions of specialized hearing and language personnel and 79 positions of Special Education educator personnel have been created, an additional provision “with which the aim is to support the diversity attention measures that guarantee inclusive education in the early educational stages,” he stated.
Altogether, the service of non-teaching educational care personnel (special education educational personnel, early childhood education educational personnel, technical management personnel in sign language interpretation and physiotherapists) will be staffed with 2,520 people for the 23/24 academic year. , which is 9% more than in the previous course.
Regarding school transportation, the execution of the new contract begins that includes Baccalaureate students as beneficiaries of this free service with the aim of guaranteeing that students who complete ESO can continue their training at the same center.
To this end, the Department is going to increase the amount allocated to this collective transport by 31% and will allocate more than 72.5 million euros this year compared to 55 million last year, which will benefit nearly 43,700 beneficiary students. . On the other hand, individual aid for transport will mean allocating another 2.03 million euros.
With regard to the school cafeteria, it is estimated that there will be more than 150,000 beneficiaries during the 23/24 academic year, of which 53.33%, more than half, will receive 100% aid, for which the Department will allocate 75.4 million euros. The maximum amounts corresponding to dining aid per diner per day remain at 4.25 euros for Early Childhood, Primary and ESO Education, 5.44 euros in the case of Special Education, and up to 12.25 euros for students who attend to a Home-School.
Regarding the book bank, 470,000 students benefit from this program, which has a budget of 72 million euros, 12 million more than last year, which represents an increase of 20%. As a novelty for this course, this resource is extended to Baccalaureate. For its part, the child bonus (0-3 years old) will have 39,900 beneficiaries and an amount of 87.5 million euros is allocated.
The FP offers 151,077 places for this course, 6.5% more than last year. Positions are growing due to the high demand for this training, with special relevance in the middle and higher modules. Regarding enrollment, it must be taken into account that FP registrations do not officially close until October, although as an x-ray at this time there are already 100,345 students enrolled.
Finally, regarding the students who will take official language teaching, at this time there are 31,299 students enrolled and 84,125 places offered, but these are provisional figures, given that, as in the FP, the process is still open and the official data do not They will be known until October.
