<h6><strong>The Diplomat</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Instituto Cervantes and the Spanish Red Cross have renewed their educational and cultural cooperation agreement for the provision of Spanish language courses for migrants for another four years.</strong></h4> The objective of the agreement—signed on June 2, 2021, by the director of the Instituto Cervantes, Luis Manuel García Montero, and the then president of the Spanish Red Cross, Francisco Javier Senent—is to promote the integration into Spanish society of migrants supported by the Red Cross. To this end, the agreement facilitates the learning of Spanish through courses offered by the Instituto Cervantes, which can be taught at the centers of either organization. The agreement is valid until June 3, 2025, but the two parties have reached an agreement to extend this collaboration for another four years. The extension was signed on April 24 by Luis García Montero and the current president of the Spanish Red Cross, María del Mar Pageo, as published this Thursday in the Official State Gazette (BOE). The agreement does not entail the transfer of resources from the Instituto Cervantes to the Red Cross, and both organizations will assume their commitments through their own resources, materials, and personnel, and within their respective budgets. The Instituto Cervantes provides the necessary teachers for the successful delivery of the courses, relying on the support of students from the Institute's Spanish as a Foreign Language (ELE) teacher training courses. Under no circumstances does the staff provided by the Instituto Cervantes maintain an employment relationship with the Red Cross. The courses are offered free of charge, and students who participate in the courses will receive a certificate of achievement issued by the Instituto Cervantes. To obtain this, students must pass the evaluation tests and attend at least 80% of the classes for the entire course, regardless of the reason for absences.
