Pre-primary education is the stage of education that caters to children aged 0-5. It is non-compulsory and organised into two cycles: the first one for children up to 2 years of age, and the second one for children aged 3-5.

School Code Programme 4.0 – School Year 2023/24

In December 2023, the Agreement of the Sectorial Conference on Education was published, approving the proposal for territorial distribution and distribution criteria for the credits managed by autonomous communities and destined for the School Code Programme 4.0, in the budgetary year 2023, with an amount of 1 600 000.00 euros.

The recipients of this programme are teachers who provide education in the second cycle of Early Childhood and Primary Education, regulated by Organic Law 3/2006, on Education (LOE), amended by Organic Law 3/2020 (LOMLOE), and their students. Depending on the support needs expressed by the teaching staff, it may be extended to publicly funded schools that offer Secondary Education, provided the support needs of schools offering the second cycle of Early Childhood and Primary Education have been met.

The general goal is to implement the necessary mechanisms and processes to spread and facilitate the development of digital skills related to computational thinking and programming for both teachers and students in publicly funded schools.

The specific objectives of the Programme are:

• To improve the digital skills of students, especially those related to computational thinking and programming.
• To implement digital skills in the classroom, especially those related to computational thinking and programming, through teacher training, support, and the development of digital educational resources.
• To provide schools with the necessary equipment to develop students' digital skills, especially those related to computational thinking and programming.

Programme to Promote Enrolment in the First Cycle of Early Childhood Education with New Publicly Owned Places, Primarily for 1 and 2-year-old Girls and Boys

On December 13, 2023, the Sectorial Conference on Education approved the Agreement establishing the territorial distribution and distribution criteria for credits managed by autonomous communities and destined for the Territorial Cooperation Programme to Promote Enrolment in the First Cycle of Early Childhood Education with new publicly owned places, primarily for 1 and 2-year-old girls and boys, in the budgetary year 2023, within Component 21 "Modernization and digitalization of the education system, including early education from 0-3 years" of the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism (RRM), with an amount of 142 464 043.00 euros.

2023

Reform of the degree plan of the Bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education

The Ministry of Sciencie, Innovation and Universities has published a draft ministerial order with the changes it proposes for the curriculum of the Early Childhood Education Bachelor´s degree. Among these modifications, the order includes the organisation of the courses and the distribution of the credits to pass it. The order proposed by Universities adds more credits to subjects such as Fundamentals of Educational Inclusion and Attention to Diversity. In addition, there are subjects that were not mandatory and now become so as the Attention to Diversity. Similarly, this reform focuses on general issues such as “the digitalisation of education, personal skills or sustainability”. As for the subject called Digitalisation, 12 university credits are dedicated.

Implementation of Early Childhood Education Curricula of the different Autonomous Communities

After the reform carried out in 2020 with the publication of Organic Law 3/2020 amending Organic Law 2/2006 on Education, a reform process began that culminated with the publication, among others, of Royal Decree 95/2022 establishing the ordination and minimum education of early childhood education from 0 to 5 years (ISCED 0). From this Royal Decree, each Autonomous Community and the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports, in its field of competence, has made a specific provision in its own Decree/Order of Curriculum. They can be consulted at the link of educagob. These curricula have been implemented throughout the Early Childhood Education stage in the 2022/23 academic year.

2022

School Code Plan 4.0

This plan will be structured as a Territorial Cooperation Programme between the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports (MEFD) and the educational administrations of the autonomous communities. Its purpose is to help develop the digital skills of students in early childhood, primary and secondary education with a special focus on computational thinking, programming and robotics.

Over the next two years, an investment of 356 million euros is planned for the incorporation of programming assistants in classrooms to help teachers implement robotics, programming and computational thinking in their lessons.

Likewise, this plan does not imply the modification of the new curricula which begin implementation in September, but rather their development. During the 2022/2023 school year, it will be implemented in child and primary education and, the following year, in secondary education.

Similarly, the plan includes the provision of equipment and teaching materials, specific educational resources and guides that will be prepared by the National Institute of Educational Technologies and Teacher Training (INTEF).

New steering document for ECEC

Royal Decree 95/2022 was approved in February which establishes the organization and minimum contents of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) from 0 and 5 years (ISCED 0). For the first time, the new legislation regulates and provides an educational character to the education stage from 0 to 2 years. Pre-primary school is not mandatory, and it is divided in two cycles: 0 to 2 years (ISCED 01) and 3 to 5 years (ISCED 02).

One of the objectives, within the framework of the new Organic Law 3/2020 (LOMLOE) which modifies the Organic Law 2/2006 (LOE), is the progressive implementation of the first cycle through public offer and the extension of its gratuity. It also focuses on the prioritization of access of the students in danger of poverty and social exclusion, and to palliate the situation of low rate of schooling.

The purpose of pre-primary education is to contribute to the physical, affective, and social development of children. In order to do so, the new Royal Decree defines the objectives, aims, general and pedagogic principles, and key competences for this period, as well as the specific competences, evaluation criteria and basic knowledge. The educative contents of pre-primary education are organized in areas related to fields part of the experience and infants’ development and will be treated by global propositions of learning which has interest and significance for the kids in each area they will be integrated:

• growth in harmony;
• discovery and exploration of the surroundings;
• communication and representation of reality.

The specific competences in each area include the abilities students must master in activities or situations, whose approach require basic knowledge of each area. These specific competences represent a connecting element between the basic knowledge of the areas and the evaluation criteria.