Madrid (EFE)
On Saturday the 18th, the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, announced the distribution of 2,520 million euros in scholarships, the highest figure to date and which will reach more than one million young people.
This amount represents 40% of the entire budget of the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training.
According to Sánchez, the Executive today invests one billion euros more than in the last government of Mariano Rajoy, with which the increase in scholarships in this period has exceeded 70%.
Compared to last year, there is an increase of 18% more.
Among the main innovations that it introduces for the 2023-2024 academic year is the granting of universal aid (without income threshold) to students with specific educational needs and the increase in the scholarship received by young people who study outside their home , going from the current 1,600 euros to 2,500 euros.
The objective of the latter is to make it easier for students to continue their studies in a town other than their own, with special emphasis on families in rural areas and in emptied Spain, whose sons and daughters have to move and reside in other cities to be able to take post-compulsory education.
Those students in the second cycle of infant, primary, secondary and baccalaureate with specific educational support needs who next year want to take advantage of a new universal subsidy with an amount of 400 euros per year will not have to meet any income threshold.
This is justified by the fact that families with sons or daughters who have these needs assume very significant additional costs to attend to them, which, together with the current economic circumstances, requires extraordinary support.
On the other hand, the royal decree maintains the advance of the calls started last year and which means advancing scholarship applications by four months, which will begin next March.
