The San José de Cáceres school launches a student campaign after receiving only 5 applications

Fewer and fewer children are being born, which is causing school demand to plummet. It also happens in Cáceres, where this year the enrollment process for three-year-olds has been easier than ever: 100% of families have been able to choose the desired center. This facility has a downside: there are schools in which the number of children enrolled has been especially low. One of them is the concerted San José, which, according to data from the Ministry of Education, achieved only 5 applications in the process that ended in May, a figure that has been slightly nuanced after the claims period, but that the center itself does not specify. . In any case, so few children have gone to work to try to reverse a downward trend that most of the region is actually experiencing.

The center has launched a proposal for permanent open doors on networks in which you can meet the nursery school teacher and see first-hand what the center’s project is like. The idea, explains Marian Fernández, the counselor of this concerted school, is to be an option for families who move to the city throughout the course and who need to send their children to school. He explains that although the promotion of the centers is usually done before Easter, because in the month of April is when the registration period opens, “throughout the year school periods are also needed, there are children who reach the city ​​by change of jobs of their parents. Fernández points out that this center offers “a very personalized and very close teaching”. It is one of the oldest schools in the city, which opened its doors 130 years ago.

Is there fear of a possible closure of this school? Fernández indicates that no, “we have a very serious birth problem that is general”, and that its purpose is above all to show the educational quality of this religious center and that families have it as an option. There are currently 300 students studying at this center located on Martín Cerezo street. It covers a wide range, from Infant to Secondary and with twenty teachers.

Recently, in statements to this medium, the Secretary General of Education of the Junta de Extremadura, Francisco Amaya, pointed out that the situation of the Ribera del Marco and San José schools in Cáceres and La Paz in Plasencia, which chain years of lost applications in matriculation.

According to enrollment data offered by the Board, more than a third of the 994 places offered in the 26 city centers remain vacant.

Most of the schools in the city have lost students compared to last year’s process. Among the audiences, one of those that has experienced a greater drop compared to last year has been the Practices, which last year had 39 applications for its 50 places and this year it has remained at 29. This is one of the cases in which a unit could be threatened if the drop in requests continues. The Sacred Heart, which has two units, has only received 20 requests.

The demand for the San Antonio de Padua school has also decreased, which last year was the only one together with Nazaret with more demand than supply and this year it has only received 17 applications for 25 places. Very far from the 25 places offered, the El Vivero public school has also remained, with only three applications.