1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:20,000 My colleague is going to help me. 2 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:29,200 So here I have made a summary for you explaining the number of public funded schools, private 3 00:00:29,200 --> 00:00:37,400 schools and total number of schools at different stages on education and the number of bilingual 4 00:00:37,400 --> 00:00:45,200 schools within this state school this year has been 206 at the primary level and 28 at 5 00:00:45,200 --> 00:00:46,640 the secondary level. 6 00:00:46,640 --> 00:00:54,240 In brackets you will be able to see 242 for next year at primary and 54 at secondary. 7 00:00:54,240 --> 00:01:06,400 This is because a large number of secondary schools have been elected to start implementation 8 00:01:06,400 --> 00:01:12,360 of the bilingual programme for next year to give continuity to the students who have ended 9 00:01:12,360 --> 00:01:23,560 primary this year for the first time since the implementation started in 2004 I think. 10 00:01:23,560 --> 00:01:29,680 So I just wanted to give you an impression, a general perspective why the Comunidad de 11 00:01:29,680 --> 00:01:37,920 Madrid decided to start such a challenging programme in state schools and it is related 12 00:01:37,920 --> 00:01:45,920 with the year 2001 when the European framework was developed, when the portfolio was developed 13 00:01:45,920 --> 00:01:53,040 and when following laws were passed at different levels, national, regional, in order to try 14 00:01:53,040 --> 00:02:00,240 to introduce at the different levels of education the learning of foreign languages as a vehicle 15 00:02:00,240 --> 00:02:06,400 for communication between the different citizens of different countries within the European 16 00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:14,200 Union and therefore in the Comunidad de Madrid in 2004 they started this programme which 17 00:02:14,200 --> 00:02:24,360 is really growing and being more and more complex and making not only an improvement 18 00:02:24,360 --> 00:02:32,400 in terms of educational, improvement of education but also an improvement in terms of teachers 19 00:02:32,400 --> 00:02:40,720 training, language skills development, school resources and many other aspects I will try 20 00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:47,080 to summarise later. 21 00:02:47,080 --> 00:02:51,120 Well the key elements in general of the programme were explained very well, much better than 22 00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:57,200 me this morning by the Director General in the plenary session we attended this morning. 23 00:02:57,200 --> 00:03:03,480 However I wanted to give you an idea where the language and cultural system programmes 24 00:03:03,480 --> 00:03:08,320 can be placed within the programme. So the main elements of the bilingual programme both 25 00:03:08,320 --> 00:03:16,320 at primary and secondary level is the training which is compulsory for all the teachers, 26 00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:24,720 those teachers who must be qualified and for this qualification they need a training which 27 00:03:24,720 --> 00:03:35,840 is compulsory. This training is also aimed to improve the role of the language assistants 28 00:03:35,880 --> 00:03:41,000 within the schools and therefore we decided to make compulsory the training for our language 29 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:47,800 assistants as well. Then the coordinator is really a very important element within the 30 00:03:47,800 --> 00:03:53,680 organisation of a bilingual school because he is the person in charge of coordinating 31 00:03:53,680 --> 00:03:59,080 both within the school and between the school and the administration that is with us. So 32 00:03:59,080 --> 00:04:05,120 it's a very difficult role those people have to develop and to carry out within the schools 33 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:09,440 but I think it's really interesting and it's really important in relation with the language 34 00:04:09,440 --> 00:04:15,160 and cultural assistant programme. Then the planning and the evaluation is nothing I'm 35 00:04:15,160 --> 00:04:22,880 going to talk about today but I think it's important to be pointed out. 36 00:04:22,880 --> 00:04:28,800 More specifically I wanted to let you know how a language and cultural assistant can 37 00:04:28,800 --> 00:04:36,280 arrive to one of our classrooms. So first of all they apply, they are native countries, 38 00:04:36,280 --> 00:04:44,960 an American, a British citizen must go to an institution, for instance in Great Britain 39 00:04:44,960 --> 00:04:51,200 they go to the British Council, in the USA they go to different programmes run by the 40 00:04:51,200 --> 00:04:57,920 universities in coordination with the different consulates and each country, there are a wide 41 00:04:57,960 --> 00:05:05,160 variety of countries collaborating with us. So what they do is to ask for participating 42 00:05:05,160 --> 00:05:11,560 at these local institutions and then the Ministry of Education is in charge of collecting all 43 00:05:11,560 --> 00:05:18,600 these candidates and then doing the first selection of candidates and those who are 44 00:05:18,600 --> 00:05:25,120 able to participate, who feel all the requirements for participating in the programme are sent 45 00:05:25,120 --> 00:05:32,440 by an agreement of collaboration with the different regions in Spain and we are sent 46 00:05:32,440 --> 00:05:39,240 the number of language assistants we have previously communicated via this agreement 47 00:05:39,240 --> 00:05:47,280 which is revised yearly by the regional authorities. 48 00:05:47,280 --> 00:05:54,280 So within the Comunidad de Madrid the bilingual programme belongs to the Department of Innovative 49 00:05:54,440 --> 00:05:59,240 Programmes and this programme, the Language and Cultural Assistant Programme belongs to 50 00:05:59,240 --> 00:06:07,320 this department too. This department is connected within the Dirección General de Mejora de 51 00:06:07,320 --> 00:06:12,760 la Calidad de la Enseñanza, within the Consejería de Educación and el Gobierno de la Comunidad 52 00:06:12,760 --> 00:06:20,120 de Madrid. I say that because some people, particularly the language and cultural assistant 53 00:06:20,120 --> 00:06:25,560 define really difficult to distinguish whether they are belonging to a regional administration 54 00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:32,920 or a national administration. They have no clear idea about if they have to ask to the 55 00:06:32,920 --> 00:06:38,000 Ministry of Education or to the Consejería de Educación about different problems or 56 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:45,920 different kinds of information they may require during their stay. So we are in charge of 57 00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:52,320 the whole development of the programme, however we have to sign the agreement with the Ministry 58 00:06:52,320 --> 00:06:59,040 of Education in order to be able to have the number of candidates required for every year. 59 00:06:59,040 --> 00:07:06,520 So there is a step, we are at the third step. So when the language assistants come to us 60 00:07:06,520 --> 00:07:13,640 they have passed through two different administrations. One at their destination and a second one 61 00:07:13,640 --> 00:07:18,520 at the national level in the country, Spain, and then they arrive to the Comunidad de Madrid 62 00:07:18,520 --> 00:07:27,520 and they are lost. They don't know where they belong to. So that's why the language assistant 63 00:07:27,520 --> 00:07:33,280 is connected both with the Ministry, with the Comunidad de Madrid and with the school. 64 00:07:33,280 --> 00:07:38,640 And it's necessary to keep this relationship because we cannot act straight ahead with 65 00:07:38,640 --> 00:07:43,480 the countries where they come from, right? We need the Ministry of Education who is 66 00:07:43,480 --> 00:07:50,400 able to sign these bilateral agreements between the governments and then we can, through the 67 00:07:50,400 --> 00:07:58,400 Ministry of Education, connect this language assistant to the schools where they are required. 68 00:07:58,400 --> 00:08:06,600 Well the key elements of this programme, especially this programme, this is a really brief summary 69 00:08:06,600 --> 00:08:14,040 about it but I try to be very brief. So it is a grant, it's not a salary. This is very 70 00:08:14,040 --> 00:08:20,280 important. Some teachers and some principals and some language assistants they tend to 71 00:08:20,280 --> 00:08:26,320 think that they are earning money as a salary and this is not true. They are here as students. 72 00:08:26,320 --> 00:08:32,480 This is a student programme and the money they earn is a grant and this is why the possibility 73 00:08:32,480 --> 00:08:39,280 of renewing this grant is just once. There is a very long list in the USA of candidates 74 00:08:39,280 --> 00:08:45,600 really keen on coming here to enjoy this grant which is really interesting because 1,000 75 00:08:45,600 --> 00:08:53,440 euros per month for 16 hours a week is really a very interesting amount of money to have 76 00:08:53,440 --> 00:09:01,640 here and to enjoy living in Spain as a student and even family members. We live a very critical 77 00:09:01,680 --> 00:09:08,080 situation at the moment and I think it is a very attractive option for many people and 78 00:09:08,080 --> 00:09:13,720 that's why we decided not only Madrid but in general, in general, many other regions 79 00:09:13,720 --> 00:09:19,520 in Spain and the Ministry of Education too because they run a specific national programme 80 00:09:19,520 --> 00:09:28,400 too to just allow renewing one year. Then we provide with medical assistance to the 81 00:09:28,440 --> 00:09:37,480 non-European language assistants and as I said before, they are obliged to be trained to assist 82 00:09:37,480 --> 00:09:44,520 to a training session along the year, three times a year. One at the very beginning of the programme, 83 00:09:44,520 --> 00:09:50,480 before the first day, the 1st of October, then before the first day of the second term and 84 00:09:50,480 --> 00:09:56,360 finally at the end of the second term or the beginning of the third term. At this time, 85 00:09:56,360 --> 00:10:04,200 what we try to do is just to kind of assessment of how it goes and things to improve for the next 86 00:10:04,200 --> 00:10:17,240 year, their impressions, their claims or their positive criticism, everything. One thing I wanted 87 00:10:17,240 --> 00:10:24,280 to point out here in this presentation is that only in Madrid, the allocation of language 88 00:10:24,280 --> 00:10:30,240 assistants to a school is proportional. The rest of language and culture assistant programmes, 89 00:10:30,240 --> 00:10:37,160 they are organised according to a particular number of people, of candidates and they are 90 00:10:37,160 --> 00:10:44,880 distributed with a fixed number of candidates without connection with the real number of 91 00:10:44,880 --> 00:10:51,760 students being affected by this assistance and I think it is really interesting that what we do 92 00:10:51,760 --> 00:10:57,600 is to adapt a proportional number of language assistants according to the real number of 93 00:10:57,600 --> 00:11:03,960 students participating in the bilingual programme each year, each school. So it is a very complex 94 00:11:03,960 --> 00:11:11,040 way to allocate the language assistants and that's why some schools enjoy four language 95 00:11:11,040 --> 00:11:19,560 assistants, others a half, eight hours language assistant or even six language assistants. It 96 00:11:19,600 --> 00:11:25,280 depends on the year of implementation of the programme, when the school started implementing 97 00:11:25,280 --> 00:11:31,640 the programme. It depends on the number of groups affected by the programme, that is, it's not the 98 00:11:31,640 --> 00:11:38,200 same as school with three groups in each level multiply and you will see what a big number of 99 00:11:38,200 --> 00:11:46,120 a student it makes and it's different a school with just one group per grade. It's absolutely 100 00:11:46,160 --> 00:11:54,160 different. So we have information every year, we update this information and we try to adapt the 101 00:11:54,160 --> 00:12:01,080 number of assistants allocated at this particular school according to the increasement of students 102 00:12:01,080 --> 00:12:08,400 for the next year. And it is very complicated work and it takes a long time. We start doing 103 00:12:08,520 --> 00:12:17,440 this in November and we are about to finish this procedure right now. So when our language 104 00:12:17,440 --> 00:12:23,200 assistants participate for the whole appointment from the first of October until the 38th of June 105 00:12:23,200 --> 00:12:29,440 and when they have attended our training sessions the three times along the year, we provide them 106 00:12:29,440 --> 00:12:37,800 with a certification of this attendance and we allow them to participate for one more year as I 107 00:12:37,800 --> 00:12:44,560 said before. Apart from this being said, there is a small group of language assistants called 108 00:12:44,560 --> 00:12:50,640 Fulbrighters and they are the only group of language assistants under our absolute control. 109 00:12:50,640 --> 00:12:56,880 This is an agreement, a bilateral agreement between two institutions, not two countries or two regions. 110 00:12:56,880 --> 00:13:04,960 It's the Fulbright Commission and the Comunidad de Madrid who signed an agreement for collaboration 111 00:13:05,040 --> 00:13:11,640 and they sent us a number of candidates, Fulbrighters, all of them, and they are very, very 112 00:13:11,640 --> 00:13:19,600 valued. Sorry, they are, how can I say, I mean, they have a great value within the school because 113 00:13:19,600 --> 00:13:28,400 they are people brilliant somehow on education, on research, and they are really able to contribute 114 00:13:28,440 --> 00:13:35,520 to the improvement of maybe resources, ideas, so they are, well, sometimes we find these kinds of 115 00:13:35,520 --> 00:13:40,880 language assistants in the whole group, in the big group, but it's a sort of warranty, okay? 116 00:13:40,880 --> 00:13:52,160 And well, the participation, just to summarize, they apply via their institutions and then we 117 00:13:52,160 --> 00:13:57,880 provide them with an appointment, an official appointment, and if they are non-European citizens, 118 00:13:57,880 --> 00:14:02,800 we provide them with a visa reference letter for them to be able to obtain the visa to come here 119 00:14:02,800 --> 00:14:12,720 for the student grant, and this is a Schenken visa, which is a visa only for students. This is 120 00:14:12,720 --> 00:14:19,880 important because sometimes they ask you, Maria, I have decided to work at an academy or, no, 121 00:14:19,880 --> 00:14:25,640 they are not able to work, to receive a salary, to make a contract, they are not able to work in 122 00:14:25,640 --> 00:14:30,720 this sense. They are students, they are able to participate in another student programs, but 123 00:14:30,720 --> 00:14:38,920 they are not allowed to work. The visa they have obtained with our official documents is not the 124 00:14:38,920 --> 00:14:47,440 one required for working, and then other documents required by the consulates. For this year, as you 125 00:14:47,440 --> 00:14:52,320 saw this morning in the presentation of Javier Gisbert, the number of language assistants will 126 00:14:52,440 --> 00:15:01,800 be 884. The distribution of this large number is 708 language assistants at the primary schools, 127 00:15:01,800 --> 00:15:12,760 121 in the secondary schools, and the rest of 55 is a group of language assistants participating 128 00:15:12,760 --> 00:15:20,400 in the Ministry of Education program. It's not our program, but since they are in schools, 129 00:15:20,720 --> 00:15:28,600 in secondary schools in our region, we invite them for training, etc. Okay, so we try to include 130 00:15:28,600 --> 00:15:38,600 them always in the general group of language assistants. Just very brief, the language 131 00:15:38,600 --> 00:15:44,800 assistant is connected within the school with the director, who is the most important and the 132 00:15:44,800 --> 00:15:50,920 responsible person for the language assistant, more than the coordinator or any other person in 133 00:15:50,920 --> 00:15:57,160 the school. So the language assistant has to be clear that they have to communicate anything, 134 00:15:57,160 --> 00:16:05,920 especially concerning absence or permissions or whatever their situation at the school is. They 135 00:16:05,920 --> 00:16:11,680 must be connected with the principal of the school. Then for pedagogic questions and aspects, 136 00:16:11,840 --> 00:16:19,880 with the coordinator, with the qualified teachers within the program, and for money and residence 137 00:16:19,880 --> 00:16:26,080 cards, etc., with the secretary of the school. Well, basically the functions have been explained 138 00:16:26,080 --> 00:16:31,200 this morning, so I just wrote here the most important things they are expected to do at 139 00:16:31,200 --> 00:16:38,200 school. And well, just you can read through them. And summarising, they are expected to 140 00:16:38,360 --> 00:16:46,840 reinforce the English learning at school, not only in an academic aspect, but also in the 141 00:16:46,840 --> 00:16:52,160 cultural aspect. They are really sometimes cultural ambassadors from their countries, 142 00:16:52,160 --> 00:16:57,920 and if they really want to, they can really be a window for these children. They can offer them 143 00:16:57,920 --> 00:17:06,120 the opportunity to travel without flying to their countries, explaining them their, you know, 144 00:17:06,120 --> 00:17:13,160 costumes and food, and such a silly thing like notes. It's something very attractive for children 145 00:17:13,160 --> 00:17:19,080 and can be really a great experience for them to report as family and to connect the program 146 00:17:19,080 --> 00:17:25,080 with the family, with the parents, with the grandparents, neighbourhood, etc. So I think 147 00:17:25,080 --> 00:17:31,400 their role is bigger than only the academic reinforcement of the English teaching and 148 00:17:31,400 --> 00:17:43,080 learning, right? As I said, they have compulsory training. They must start the 1st of October and 149 00:17:43,080 --> 00:17:50,160 the 38th of June and be punctual, do whatever they have been expected to do and asked to do, 150 00:17:50,160 --> 00:17:57,320 and well, as everybody, justify or write an excuse note from the doctor when you are not able to 151 00:17:57,320 --> 00:18:04,360 attend your work. This is important. I would like to remark here that language assistants are not 152 00:18:04,360 --> 00:18:12,120 teachers, so you are not able to ask them to run a lesson, to be, you know, to ask for, you know, 153 00:18:12,120 --> 00:18:20,560 control of the classroom. Classroom management is not something expected from them, and it's 154 00:18:20,640 --> 00:18:27,440 really a dangerous situation when you ask a language assistant to be alone within the school, 155 00:18:27,440 --> 00:18:33,920 within the class, with 20 children. Maybe this person is really able to do it. Maybe they are 156 00:18:33,920 --> 00:18:38,360 even better than you. Sometimes you may think, because they have studied education, they are 157 00:18:38,360 --> 00:18:45,440 native speakers, young, they control very well these devices like, you know, interactive blackboards, 158 00:18:45,760 --> 00:18:51,120 etc., and you may think like they are really able and there is nothing wrong with doing this, 159 00:18:51,120 --> 00:18:57,920 but they are not responsible for what may happen with a child, and our children are very young, 160 00:18:57,920 --> 00:19:04,280 sometimes suddenly, out of the blue, something can happen, and who is responsible of this situation? 161 00:19:04,280 --> 00:19:11,160 They are not responsible for anything but supporting the teacher, always supporting the 162 00:19:11,160 --> 00:19:16,520 teacher, and this is very important to keep in mind, and when the teacher is not able to attend 163 00:19:16,520 --> 00:19:23,160 the lesson because of something happened, an illness or whatever, then there must be another 164 00:19:23,160 --> 00:19:28,840 teacher, maybe not an English teacher, but another teacher in the classroom permanently when this 165 00:19:28,840 --> 00:19:34,680 language assistant wants to assume running the lesson, okay? I don't know if I was clear enough, 166 00:19:34,680 --> 00:19:42,680 but this is really something I wanted to communicate. Well, here you've got, there are 167 00:19:42,680 --> 00:19:50,680 different links where you can find information about the programme. The problem is that if you 168 00:19:50,680 --> 00:19:55,280 find information about the language and cultural system programme run by the Comunidad de Madrid 169 00:19:55,280 --> 00:20:00,960 in the links by the Ministry of Education, what you get to know is general information about the 170 00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:06,680 programme that the Ministry of Education runs in Spain. Do you remember the 55 language assistants 171 00:20:06,680 --> 00:20:14,840 I told you? These work for 12 hours a week, earn 700 euros a month, etc. So the conditions, the 172 00:20:14,840 --> 00:20:21,040 organisation of the national programme is different from the programme run in each different Comunidad 173 00:20:21,040 --> 00:20:27,000 Autónoma, in each different region, so you must be careful when entering for getting information 174 00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:33,000 to the different links because you can get confused. And every single year I receive messages, 175 00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:39,640 Magdalena, next year we're going to earn only 700 euros because they have entered the information, 176 00:20:39,640 --> 00:20:47,560 the page run by the Ministry of Education. Our information is in this page. We have created a 177 00:20:47,560 --> 00:20:56,440 virtual community last year to allow our language assistant to get, okay, thank you very much, to get 178 00:20:56,440 --> 00:21:04,080 information and resources as well as we, as civil servants, teachers do. So I think it's 179 00:21:04,080 --> 00:21:11,120 interesting. If you visit this page you will be able to find updated, permanently updated 180 00:21:11,120 --> 00:21:16,080 information about what is going to happen within the language and cultural system programme in Madrid. 181 00:21:16,080 --> 00:21:20,440 And that's all. Thank you very much.