Little learners

SPAIN is celebrating a historic milestone in early years education, showing the success of the country’s work­family balance.

Data on the last academic year, which just ended, was released on Thursday, June 29. The data revealed that a remarkable 45.6 per cent of children aged zero to three were enrolled in nursery schools and other pre­school education centres, a 6.8 per cent increase compared with the previous academic year.

Overall, 468,429 children between the ages of zero and three were enrolled in some form of pre ­ school education, 29,919 more than the previous year.

Enrolment rates were highest among three­year­olds, with 355,837 students. Notable, enrolments of two­year­olds in nurseries and pre­schools surged to more than 70 per cent of the total national population of two­year­olds, up from 64 per cent the year before.

The number of early education centres also rose by 6.5 per cent in the last year, a further 672 additional centres compared to 2022. The Ministry for Education is providing support with a €670 million grant over the next three years to create 65,000 public, free early childhood education spots.

THERE is no question that many people, especially those with holiday homes in Spain were very upset by Brexit, but there might just be a silver lining to what has been seen as a dark cloud.

Politicians in Spain, as well as several other European countries are quite happy to have their cake and eat it which means that