The Formentera Department of Youth is pleased to report that local families wishing to enrol young ones in one of the island’s summer camp programmes have from 4 to 13  June to complete registration. Escola d’Estiu registration can be completed on the Formentera OVAC (Virtual Citizen Information Office) or in person and by appointment at the OAC (Citizen Information Office).

The Consell de Formentera’s summer programme for ages three to twelve starts 1 July in the public schools of Sant Francesc, Sant Ferran and La Mola. Priority will go to families for whom balancing work and childcare is problematic, those at increased risk of social and economic hardship and those in which children are receiving special protective attention. As in the previous year, special tuition assistance is available for households particularly affected by the Covid-19 crisis.

Youth chief Vanessa Parellada voiced satisfaction at being able, year after year, to “help families reconcile work and family life, and provide an alternative source of leisure and education for local children”.

The Escola d’Estiu programme runs daily from 8.00am to 2.30pm. Activities and organisational structure will be adapted to public health safety protocol.

4 June 2021
Communications Department
Consell de Formentera

The Formentera Department of Education is pleased to announce that today to 6 July, the OAC and OVAC will accept applications for two lines of assistance for students and schools. Application forms and complete details are available on the Consell de Formentera website or by emailing educacio@conselldeformentera.cat .

Schools in the textbook- and learning material-recycling programme may request money as well. And, from 2021, they can also get help with digitisation programmes. Potential beneficiaries:

- Primary and secondary schools with textbook- and learning material-recycling and/or digitisation programmes in 2020/2021.

- Primary schoolers in the recycled textbook programme and high schoolers in the digitisation programme, not to mention children from large and single-parent families.

The Consell has announced a total of €45,000 in available funding, with participating primary and secondary schools getting €50 and €70, respectively, per participating pupil and large and single-parent families paying nothing for textbooks. High schoolers in the digitisation programme and members of large and single-parent families who purchase computer equipment can receive €200.

Click here to view the complete terms.

New line of assistance for computer purchases
The plenary-backed motion to subsidise computer purchases came in response to petitions from the educational community and was conceived to alleviate fallout from the public health and economic crises stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic. Assistance covers computers and other equipment including tablets, printers, routers, repeaters and similar devices designed for studying and/or online learning.

A total of €15,000 has been made available for computer subsidies. Applicants, who must have been enrolled in an academic programme (year five and up) on 31 December 2020 or have been born during or after 1995, are eligible for up to €300 or a reimbursement of 90% of their total purchase.

Equipment must have been purchased between 14 March 2020 (the date emergency orders were declared) and the date of application.

Click here to view the complete terms.

Coronavirus crisis
Education chief Susana Labrador said the new subsidies were part of an effort to “help families and schools overcome obstacles to access — obstacles that were thrown into sharp focus by lockdown measures”. The councillor highlighted Formentera’s continued support for the recycled textbook programme, and indicated additional help to offset insularity and improve access to higher education was coming down the pike too. Formentera’s government is currently looking at ways to adapt the terms of that aid to the new reality following the coronavirus crisis, said Labrador.

Applications can be submitted to the Citizen Information Office (OAC) Monday to Friday, 9.00am to 2.00pm and Thursday afternoons from 4.00pm to 6.00pm. They may also be sent electronically, through the Virtual Citizen Information Office (OVAC), which applicants can access from the Consell de Formentera website.

27 May 2021
Communications Department
Consell de Formentera

Local councillor of language policy, Raquel Guasch, has welcomed the news that from September, the Escola Oficial d’Idiomes (EOI, Official Language School) of Formentera, will introduce academic studies in Catalan. The announcement came today from the directorate general of planning, organisation and centres, a division of the Balearic ministry of education and vocational training. The local EOI will additionally extend Italian studies to include the B2.2 level.

A response to growing demand among EOI students, the change is the latest example of the centre’s ever-expanding instructional offering.

Councillor Guasch had petitioned the directorate general to implement the expansion. She reasoned, “It’s only fair that Formentera residents have the same educational opportunities as their neighbours in the archipelago”, she reasoned. Not only that, but “it opens up another route to local accreditation of Catalan learning and marks a step forward in the normalisation of our language”.

The exact course offering will be made public after the period of “pre-registration” (preinscripció), which begins 2 June. During pre-registration, aspiring Catalan language learners can choose between the basic A2 level and intermediate B1 and B2. The course offering will continue to expand as long as a minimum number of students enrol.

The Formentera EOI offers English from basic A1 to advanced C1.1 and Italian from basic A1 to intermediate B2.1, and currently has 320 students.

26 May 2021
Communications Department
Consell de Formentera

Primary school pupils at CEIP Sant Ferran de ses Roques have capped two days of visits at the Deixalleria and Es Cap waste management centre, where the children learned firsthand how islanders’ waste is recycled. Environment chief Antonio J. Sanz joined today’s visit to describe the circular economy and explain how we can all help to protect the environment and our planet.

19 May 2021
Communications Department
Consell de Formentera