The employers' association PIMEM criticises that the Palma City Council has yet to resolve the aids for the School Voucher 2025-2026, which generates serious harm to families with children aged 0 to 3.
The employers' association PIMEM has denounced this Tuesday the situation of "total abandonment" suffered by the early childhood centres registered with the Palma municipal registry, due to the delay in the resolution and payment of the School Voucher corresponding to the 2025-2026 academic year.
According to the organisation, the Palma City Council has still not paid the committed aids, which is causing significant economic harm to hundreds of families with children enrolled in the 0 to 3 age group.
Representatives of the affected centres have held more than half a dozen meetings with the management of the Patronat Municipal d’Escoles d’Infants (PMEI) and with the Education Councillor, Lourdes Roca, in an attempt to unblock the situation.
In those meetings, according to PIMEM, the municipal officials committed to imminently publish the call for the School Voucher. However, the aid remains stalled and families continue to be unaware of when they will receive it.
“We have attended all the meetings with a willingness to engage in dialogue, trusting in the word of Councillor Lourdes Roca and the management of the PMEI,” said the employers' association. However, they lament that “verbal commitments do not solve the reality of families nor the neglect to which the municipal network is subjected.”
The lack of resolution of the aids for the 2025-2026 academic year also adds to the delay in the call for the upcoming school cycle. PIMEM believes that by the end of July, the Palma City Council should have already published the conditions for the School Voucher for the 2026-2027 academic year.
The absence of both calls keeps both families and the registered early childhood centres in uncertainty. The organisation reminds that this aid is a fundamental tool to facilitate access to early childhood education and promote work-life balance.
The delay forces families to bear the full cost of the places while they wait for an aid whose resolution date they still do not know. For their part, the centres claim to watch helplessly the lack of institutional response.
PIMEM demands that the Palma City Council immediately resolve the School Voucher for the 2025-2026 academic year and publish the call for the next academic year as soon as possible, to prevent families and centres from continuing to suffer the consequences of this delay.
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