The start of the 2023-24 school year varies depending on the educational phase and the autonomous community, although roughly the resumption of classes is scheduled for everyone around mid-September. In Spain, the Salesians and the FMA manage and give leadership to a total of 137 schools, attended by 91,700 students, accompanied by about 6,500 teachers.
One of the specific objectives of Salesian education is to promote the brand of Salesian professional formation. In this regard, more than 16,100 young people will attend the workshops of one of the 64 SDB or FMA Vocational Training Centres this year, thanks to the work of about 1,300 teachers.
The SDB and FMA schools in Spain work to adapt the Salesian educative and pastoral style to the current context. One of the main challenges is to combine innovation and inclusion. Faithful to the charism received, they maintain the formation of good Christians and upright citizens as a fundamental educational priority. The transmission of the Gospel opens to transcendence, promotes Christian values and fosters each student's personal encounter with Jesus Christ.
At the same time, the schools of the Salesian Family in Spain are committed to forming a global, critical, responsible and supportive citizenship. On the other hand, the aim is to encourage the development of pupils' intelligence and skills through the adoption of successful educational methodologies such as, for example, cooperative learning, service learning, project work, effective thinking, emotional education strategies and the use of Information and Communication Technologies.
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, the Salesian Family schools in Spain continue to focus on ongoing formation of teachers, who, again this year are preparing to face a new academic year with the hope not only of offering ideas and content to their students, but of being able to prepare them for life – just as Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello would have wanted.
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