The reduction in places imposed by the Generalitat on Language Schools has left a huge demand for Spanish courses for foreigners in Torrevieja unfilled.
Quite a few students have been left out of the enrolment process and the municipality is now going to give a helping hand to their colleagues in Valencia. The Torrevieja council announced yesterday the tendering of a contract to teach at least part of these classes that have not been provided this year due to the lack of regional funding.
According to the councillor, Federico Alarcón, the Council plans to invest around 58,800 euros (excluding VAT) over the next two years, at a rate of 49 euros per teaching hour. The file, processed jointly by the councillors of Education and International Residents, seeks, according to Alarcón, to provide a specific outlet for that part of the student body that does not require a formal education aimed at obtaining a degree, such as that offered by the Official School of Languages.
The councillor pointed out, the aim of the Council is to remove from the centre all those who only seek to obtain basic skills in the mastery of Spanish for reasons of social and labour integration. The duration of the contract will be one year with a possible one-year extension. In total, according to Alarcón, a total of one hundred hours of classes will be taught.
Last April, the Generalitat announced to the public schools that they would lose places, around 730 in Torrevieja. This raised protests from the teachers, who in Torrevieja gathered at the doors of the centre and denounced that, last year, there were around 2,000 people on the waiting list to enter the courses.
The governing team later reacted and the councillor for International Residents, Gitte Lund, announced the intention to assume part of this demand. The Minister of Education, José Antonio Rovira, also indicated during a visit to the city in June that the cuts would be adapted to the demand and recognised that Torrevieja was one of the cities with the highest number of students.
