The head of the Valencian community, Carlos Mason, announced a new plan that provides free education for children under three years old. Starting in September of this year, education at this stage will be completely free for all families.
Increase of places and budget in kindergartens
To implement this initiative, the regional government intends to create about 72 thousand places in kindergartens throughout the autonomy. This number is three times the current number of seats. The budget for this task will be increased from 87 million euros to 170 million euros, which indicates the importance and scale of the project.
Free choice between public and private institutions
The new initiative provides for a system of mixed type of interaction between public and private educational institutions. Parents will be given the freedom to choose which institution to send their children to. This will make it possible to take "an important step towards ensuring universal access to quality education from an early age." It is also expected that the system will be flexible: parents will be able to enroll and expel their children at any time of the school year, without having to wait for it to start.
Simplification of bureaucratic procedures
Valencia is also taking steps to reduce bureaucracy in order to facilitate access to free education. It is planned to reduce the number of required documents in order to make the process easier and more accessible for families.