Salesians offer primary, secondary and professional training schools

(MissionNewswire) Nearly 91,700 students are returning to classrooms at the 137 schools run by Salesian missionaries and Salesian sisters with the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (FMA) in Spain. The students will be taught by more than 6,500 teachers.

In addition to primary and secondary schools, Salesians run professional training schools to ensure youth have more advanced education with the goal of finding and retaining employment. This school year, more than 16,100 youth will attend educational programs at 64 Salesian vocational training centers. These schools employ 1,300 teachers.

A Salesian said, “Salesian schools are committed to forming a global, critical, responsible and supportive citizenship. The aim is to encourage the development of students’ intelligence and skills through the adoption of successful educational methodologies such as cooperative learning, service learning, project work, effective thinking, emotional education strategies, and the use of information and communication technologies.”

He added, “Alongside these, there is also an urgent need to respond to the new educational needs of society. The presence of students from other cultures and origins, the new forms of youth poverty, the educational impact of “other schools” (friends, the environment, the media), and the insufficient family educational presence in many cases, create situations that require originality and creativity in educational action based on St. John Bosco’s Preventive System.”

To face all these challenges, Salesian schools continue to focus on ongoing professional education for teachers, who are starting the academic year with the hope of preparing their students for life.

Salesian missionaries have also been working for many years to provide educational and workforce development opportunities for poor youth and women in Spain through residential, technical, and vocational training programs.

Close to 32% of young Spanish workers under the age of 25 are unemployed and a growing number of them can’t afford to buy enough food to live. Poor youth with few employable skills struggle the most to find and retain stable employment. Women in Spain face inequality in the workforce. They earn up to 14% less than men and represent only 34.5% of those listed as the highest earners in Spain.

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Sources:

ANS Photo (usage permissions and guidelines must be requested from ANS) 

ANS – Spain – It is time to return to the classroom for the 91,700 students of the Salesian schools

Salesian Missions – Spain

World Bank – Spain