Spain will give the green light on April 5 for additional investment in digital education. In 2021, €1 billion was already allocated for more tablets, laptops, and digiscreens. Now the Spanish government wants to train more than 567,000 teachers for the digitization of their lessons.
The Council of Ministers of Spain plans to allocate €284 million this Tuesday for training in digital education for teachers. This investment comes in addition to the previously budgeted €1 billion to be spent on digitization of education from 2021 to 2024.
Investing in resources and in teachers to digitize education
In total, the Spanish government is investing almost €1.3 billion. This is planned until 2024 to adapt current education, in all areas, to today’s changing times. The government emphasises the previously approved €1 billion is intended to pay for resources including laptops, tablets, digiscreens, etc. Therefore, the investment that will probably be approved today is purely intended to ensure that teachers are retrained with the knowledge of today’s digital world.
According to Ministry of Education sources, 567,744 primary, secondary, and higher education teachers will benefit from accredited training. In addition, a start will be made by integrating various digital support resources at more than 22,000 schools and universities.
To keep the Digital Plan, as the Ministry calls it, manageable, a team is appointed in each Spanish region. This is to ensure teachers are offered the correct training. However, it will also look at how they can adapt their lessons from the digital perspective.
Investment in digital education equally distributed among Spanish regions
Because not every region has the same number of schools, and teachers, and the population is not equally distributed everywhere in Spain, the investment in digital education is determined per region. For example, the regions of Andalucia (€52.7 million), Catalonia (€45.7 million), and Madrid (€31.6 million) will receive the most funding.
Extra plan for vulnerable students in Spain
On the same Tuesday, the Council of Ministers will also examine a plan to make individual guidance possible for the most vulnerable students. Children who, because of their socio-economic or cultural environment, are at risk of early drop-out. For these children, a team of teachers and social workers is being put together to maintain close contact with these families to ensure that every child can continue to go to school.
An amount of €38.5 million has been budgeted for this last plan, which will be paid from European funds, as well as the investment of €1 billion in digital resources for education. This amount will also be divided equally among the Spanish regions.
