Julia Pereñíguez has been the head chef at a school for a long time. Three years ago, she decided to go for something new. “It was my sister who told me: ‘Hey, there are going to be positions for educational assistants.’ And since then, I have fully prepared for the exams,” he explained this Sunday, minutes before entering the building of the Faculty of Economics and Business of the UMU, where at 10:00 the access tests for a position as an assistant technician began. , in the educational assistant option. A job “for which you have to have a vocation”, because it is not easy: it is about providing support to children with special needs in open classrooms, special education centers or centers for minors.
Julia has already appeared for the 2022 exams, the first that have been held since 2007. She did not get a place, but she did get enough points to place herself on the job market in a position that has now allowed her to start working with an interim contract in a school. So, at 53 years old, Julia went to Espinardo this Sunday with the hope of finishing the job and definitively taking the place.
It is not an easy task, because there are almost 4,800 candidates to share the 63 places at stake. But Julia is an optimist, and she calmly awaited the opening time of the classrooms along with two other opponents from Santomera, her town: Lola Ortega, a senior technician in Early Childhood, and María Isabel, an administrator. Lola has always worked in daycares and now aspires to a job in public administration, either in nursery schools or as an educational assistant. “It has been difficult to prepare, because in the summer, it is terrible: with books from one place to another and taking care of my children, 9 and 5 years old,” she confessed. It has not been easier for María Isabel, with two children aged 11 and 5. “In the end, you turn to your partner and the toy library.”
Esther, who is not unfamiliar with caring for children with special needs, was also rushing the minutes to enter the classroom. «I have a 9-month-old boy who was born without an esophagus. [una malformación congénita conocida como atresia de esófago, que implica que este conducto está inacabado]. That causes a lot of problems; First he had parenteral nutrition, and now little by little we are moving forward with the help of a speech therapist from La Arrixaca,” he explained. The exam syllabus has helped him better handle the problems his son presents.
The 4,750 applicants, spread across different classrooms in Espinardo, faced 75 multiple choice questions. Those who pass with at least 50% correct answers will be evaluated according to merit, whose value in the contest will be 40%.
The tests started without incident, although early in the morning, while hundreds of vehicles saturated the entrances, a spectacular accident occurred at the entrances to one of the Espinardo parking lots. A vehicle overturned in the middle of the road. 112 received a call at 9:15 a.m. requesting medical assistance, but the call was deactivated because there were no injuries.
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