Private nurseries denounce that there are already closures due to the “unfair competition” of the Board

More than 20 infant education centers and private nurseries will close “definitely” in September in Extremadura if the “unfair competition” of the Ministry of Education continues with the public classrooms for 1 and 2 years that are being launched in the region.

This is what the Association of Infant Education Centers and Nurseries of Extremadura (Aceigex) affirms after the announcement of the opening by the Junta de Extremadura of 47 classrooms for 1 and 2 year olds in public schools, which has caused some of the partners “have already begun to announce their closures for the next academic year”.

Specifically, the group points out that in the last two weeks five children’s centers in Badajoz, Cáceres, Zafra, Villanueva de la Serena and Navalmoral have already informed the association that they will not continue next year “because they cannot withstand the unfair competition of the Ministry of Education”.

“Just the Beginning”

In addition, he emphasizes that in his opinion this is “only the beginning”, since there will be “many more” that will close because “many other centers want to fight to stay, but the opening of the next course will depend on enrollments in the coming months and many female directors are not very optimistic”.

In this line, the association points out that despite the fact that the centers adapt to families in terms of schedules, school calendar, educational methodologies, special needs, «60-80 percent of the centers that survive will suffer significant income losses that can cause them to close during the next academic year due to the low profit margin that these educational projects have».

“Do away with the industry”

In this regard, the association recalls that it already warned the President of the Board, Guillermo Fernández Vara, and the Minister of Education, Esther Gutiérrez, that this would happen and they were “aware” of it.

«They knew that after the pandemic, the low birth rate, the constant rise in taxes and labor costs and the indiscriminate opening of new classrooms without taking into account where there was a more than sufficient supply of places, would end the sector and the work of hundreds of entrepreneurs and workers in the region, but they didn’t care,” laments Aceigex.

Add the group that even offered their centers to the Board so that they could arrange them and offer them free of charge to families as is done in other regions of Spain, but “the objective of the Board has always been to end the sector and control the education from early childhood.

The situation, according to Aceigex, has also been revealed by one of the entrepreneurs who will have to “close” her center in Cáceres in September, María Correas Muñoz, through a letter addressed to the Chairman of the Board, Guillermo Fernández Vara.

In the letter this person is “outraged with this situation and the hypocrisy of a Junta de Extremadura” that “encouraged her to undertake” and then “forced her to close two years later.

Porture of the Creex

For its part, the Regional Business Confederation of Extremadura (CREEX) has demanded from the Junta de Extremadura an “immediate and effective” solution to guarantee the survival of early childhood education centers and nurseries, “a fundamental sector to guarantee family and work conciliation.” and advance real equality.

In this sense, CREEX supports the demands of the Association of Children’s Centers and Nurseries of Extremadura (ACEIGEX) to reverse a situation that is already causing, according to news from this association, the closure of children’s centers and nurseries due to infeasibility.

As reflected in the statement of March 11 from the only organization that represents the entire productive fabric of Extremadura, «children from 0 to 3 years old must have a place in spaces specially designed for them, where they can cover the stage prior to integration into schools.

Therefore, it is reiterated, it does not seem logical to create, with public funds, a parallel network to the one that already exists and works, a network of private initiative that allows a more complete conciliation by not closing either in the afternoons or during school holidays, as is the case with schools, which creates a very problematic situation with regard to family reconciliation.

According to CREEX, the action of the Autonomous Administration “should go in the direction of reinforcing the network that already exists, through a system of scholarships and concerts to ensure a place for families with fewer resources.”