€1 million social fund to directly support schools and students

A one million euro social fund will be operative in the coming weeks, as announced in last October’s budget. The measure has the aim to financially support, in a very direct manner, schools and students who are facing social difficulties.

This is not a challenge faced by a particular school or a specific region, but instead are realities that have been seen across the board. There is no single reason for the cause of these challenges, but educators, teachers, heads and education officials have always been in touch with this reality.

There are two ways the Education Ministry has worked on this in the past years: • The short term solution is by providing them today with support - in the last budget, for the first time ever, the €1 million social fund has been introduced, which will go directly to school officials to assist them financially. It is not acceptable to expect teachers to pay for children’s lunches. • In the long term, it is about providing social support, in terms of staff and various initiatives. Over the past two years, the ministry has added over one hundred workers in fields relating to social, counselling, and psychological support in schools. This ministry, together with the Ministry for Family and Social Solidarity, has worked to continue addressing the core difficulties some families face, and financial help is not necessarily the automatic answer to these difficulties.