Education in Spain

Education in Spain

Ministry of Education
Minister	Angel Gabilondo
General details
Primary languages	Spanish and other co-official languages in several regions, including Catalan, Euskera and Galician
System type	Federal
Literacy (2003)
Total	98.1
Male	98.8
Female	97.4
Enrollment
Total	5,917,074
Primary	2,479,631
Secondary	1,871,430
Post secondary	1,566,013
Attainment
Secondary diploma	45.4%
Post-secondary diploma	38.1%

The current system of education in Spain is known as LOE after the Ley Orgánica de Educación, or Fundamental Law of Education. Education in Spain is compulsory, and free from 6 to 16 years of age, supported by the Government.

Up to Secondary level

Below Higher Education the system can be seen as consisting of four levels:

• Pre-school (Educación Infantil, segundo ciclo) - 3 to 6 years of age
• Primary School (Educación Primaria) six years of schooling - 6 to 12 years of age
• Compulsory Secondary Education (Educación Secundaria Obligatoria) four years of schooling - 12 to 16 years of age
• Post-Compulsory Schooling (Bachillerato) two years of schooling - 16 to 18 years of age

Children 3 to 6 years old in Spain have the option of attending the Pre-school stage (infantil or popularly known as preescolar), which is non-compulsory and free for all students. It is regarded as an integral part of the education system with infants' classes at almost every primary school. There are some separate nursery schools (Colegios Infantiles).

Children (whose parents chose that they should) enter pre-school (Educación Infantil) in the autumn of the calendar year in which they turn three years old. Following this pattern, the ages given here as corresponding to the different phases are the ages turned by children in the calendar year in which the academic year begins. Age ranges are inclusive: 3 to 5 years of age is 3 academic years.

Spanish students aged 6 to 16 undergo primary (colegio) and secondary school (instituto) education, which are compulsory and (like the preceding preschool from age 3) free of charge. Successful students are awarded a Secondary Education Certificate, which is necessary to enter the post-compulsory stage of Schooling (principally the Bachillerato) for their University or Vocational (Formación Profesional) Studies. Once students have finished their Bachillerato, they can take their University Entrance Exam (Pruebas de Acceso a la Universidad, popularly called Selectividad) which differs greatly from region to region. The compulsory stage of secondary education is normally referred to by its initials: ESO (Educación Secundaria Obligatoria).

Primary school

Structured as three 2 year cycles:

• First Cycle (6 to 8 years of age)
• Second Cycle (8 to 10 years of age)
• Third Cycle (10 to 12 years of age)

Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO)

Compulsory Secondary Education (Educación Secundaria Obligatoria or ESO) is structured as two cycles of two academic years each (total 4 years):

• 1st Cycle (12 to 14 years of age)
• 2nd Cycle (14 to 16 years of age)

Upon finishing ESO the student has a number of options, including:

• Spanish Baccalaureate (post-compulsory diploma)
• Vocational Training.
• Work (it is only possible to get a job from 16 onwards)

Spanish Baccalaureate (Bachillerato)

Spanish Bachillerato is the post-16 stage of education, comparable to the A Levels in the UK, the French Baccalaureate in France or the International Baccalaureate

There are two parts, a core curriculum with the compulsory subjects, and a specialist part with a few pre-selected branches to choose from. The core curriculum is as follows:

• Spanish Language and Literature: 1st and 2nd years
• Co-official language (in case of Catalan, Basque and Galician): 1st and 2nd years
• First foreign language (English, French, German or Italian; mostly English): 1st and 2nd years
• Philosophy: 1st and 2nd years
• Physical Education: Only 1st year
• Spanish History: Only 2nd year
• Optional subject (2nd foreign language, psychology, information technology...): 1st and 2nd year
• Catholic Religion/All World Religions Studies: Only 1st year (Optional)

The specialist part has up to four subjects (depending on the branch taken).

• Arts:
  • History of art
  • Volume (sculpture)
  • Colours (painting)
• Nature and Health Sciences:
  • Biology
  • Chemistry
  • Physics, Earth Sciences or Mathematics
• Sciences & Engineering:
  • Physics,
  • Maths,
  • Chemistry or Technical Drawing
• Social Sciences:
  • Applied Maths,
  • Economics,
  • Geography,
  • World History (only 1st year)
• Humanities:
  • Latin,
  • Greek,
  • History of Art/World Literature
  • World History (only 4th year)

At undergraduate level, some degrees have their own branch requirements (such as medicine, engineering degrees, law...) and some courses accept students from any branch, such as Language studies, Social Work, Educational Sciences or Tourism.

Comparative with British Qualifications

The Spanish School Leaving Certificate (ESO) is equivalent to a number of GCSEs.

The Bachillerato is equivalent to A-levels. Therefore, Spanish students obtaining the appropriate grades required for entrance into universities in Europe, including Britain, are not precluded.

Vocational Training

The vocational training is also a common possibility after ESO or after the Spanish Baccalaureate. There are two different types of programs: Middle Grade Training Cycles (Ciclos Formativos de Grado Medio), which have the ESO diploma as a requirement, and Superior-level Training Cycles (Ciclos Formativos de grado Superior), which have the Spanish Baccalaureate as the principal requirement. After completion of the Superior-level Training Cycle, students are entitled to direct entrance to several related University degrees.

Provision and Costs

Schools in Spain can be divided into 3 categories:

• State schools (Colegios Publicos)
• Privately run schools funded by the State (Colegios Concertados)
• Purely private schools (Colegios Privados)

According to summary data for the year 2008-2009 from the ministry, state schools educated 67.4%, private but state funded schools 26.0%, and purely private schools 6.6% of pupils the preceding year.

All non-university state education is free in Spain, but parents have to buy all of their children's books and materials. This, nominally at least, also applies to colegios concertados. Many schools are concertados = state funded up to the end of ESO but are purely private for the bachillerato years. This drop in the fraction of pupils in educacion concertado is matched by increases of approximately equal size in the fraction in both state and purely private education for bachillerato.

There are private schools for all the range of compulsory education. At them, parents must pay a monthly/termly/yearly fee. Most of these schools are run by religious orders, and include single-sex schools.

Schools supply a list of what is required at the start of each school year and which will include art and craft materials as well as text and exercise books. Expect to spend a minimum of around ninety pounds (GBP) per child, but in some regions, the autonomous government is giving tokens to exchange them in book shops for free, this is being adapted in 2006 in regions, such as Andalucia, where kids from 3 to 10 will get the books for free, on the following years it is expected for all compulsory years. School uniform is not normally worn in state schools but is usually worn in private schools.

Admissions to Publicly Funded Schools

Article 84 of the governing law defines the principles to be applied in the admission of pupils to publicly funded schools. The details of the implementation of these principles vary from Comunidad to Comunidad.

Comunidad de Madrid

In the Comunidad de Madrid there is a largely unifiorm admissions process for state funded schools, both colegios publicos and colegios concertados. Here the main admissions procedures for pupils wishing to join a school in the autumn are carried out in the spring of the year in question.

Parents can choose the school to which they wish to send their child. It is not uncommon that there be insufficient places in a popular school for all the children for whom places are requested. In such cases places are allocated according to rather strictly defined admissions criteria as defined in Annex IX to the order establishing the process .

Extremadura

The royal decree governing the same process in Extremadura includes admissions criteria structured in a very similar way but differing in the number of points allocated, notably for residence near to the school.

Andalucia

An analogous decree for 2007 governing the same process in Andalucia is notably different again in the way it allocates points.

School hours

Primary school hours at present are typically from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., or full time classes from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., depending on each school, except during June and September when they work mornings only, 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. There is a move towards a single session day in primary schools which would bring them in line with secondary schools. To achieve this, each school submits to the education authority a programme of extra curricular activities to be offered in the afternoons, and if approved, the proposal to move to a single session day is put to a vote by the parents for their approval.

Some schools have a dining room and provide lunches, but many do not. Many schools offer the possibility for working parents to take their children as early as 7:00 a.m., and which in some cases includes breakfast as well as providing sport or leisure activities. Secondary schools (Instituto de Enseñanza Secundaria or commonly Instituto, or IES) work from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. throughout the school year. In both cases, there is a break that normally lasts half an hour, starting at about 11:00 a.m.

School terms

Broadly similar to the English three term system, but with slightly shorter holidays at Christmas (December 23-January 8) and Easter (one week), and longer in the summer. In 2005, the summer holiday ran from June 22 until September 1/September 15, depending on the regions. The English half-term holiday does not exist, but there are frequent odd days and long weekends relating mainly to religious holidays and regional and national holidays.

Spanish Baccalaureate Awards

Each year, there are several awards for excellent students:

• Extraordinary Spanish Baccalaureate Awards: At the end of the Spanish Baccalaureate, students who have an average of more than 87.5%, are entitled to sit for a special examination, where only one out of 30 students who take that examination, gets the Extraordinary Award.
• National Spanish Baccalaureate Awards: Every student who gets the Extraordinary Award, is entitled to sit another examination, where only 15 students nationally are given the National Award, which includes a 1200€ student grant.

Higher education

Main article: Higher education in Spain

University

The normal duration for University courses is 4 years, except Medicine and some more, which are 6. University studies have "ECTS credits" as a measure for the lessons, and normally, 60 ECTS are taken each year, so, each course comprises 240 ECTS credits. Passing every subject, and getting the 240 ECTS credits, gives the right to obtaining an academic degree (Grado), architecture or engineering qualification.

Postgraduate courses are Master's degrees (Máster), and Doctoral degrees (Doctorado). The access is regulated by the university itself, through the Doctorate Commission. It is necessary to have the degree course, architecture or engineering.

Own degrees are nonregulated studies leading to an unofficial degree, recognized only by the granting university. These courses have the same structure as the regulated studies.

The universities regulate access to their own degrees and they fix the academic fees. They can also offer unofficial postgraduate degrees. Spain has internationally recognized universities, the most notable being

• Comillas Pontifical University
• University of Alfonso X El Sabio
• Complutense University of Madrid
• University of Barcelona
• University of Seville
• Autonomous University of Barcelona
• University of the Basque Country
• University of Deusto
• University of Valencia
• Polytechnic University of Catalonia
• Technical University of Madrid
• Autonomous University of Madrid
• Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona
• Carlos III University of Madrid
• University of Granada

Other universities of historical relevance and reputation are the University of Salamanca, University of Jaén and the University of Alcalá.

See also

• Academic Awards in Spain

External links

• Spanish Ministry of Education (Spanish)
• The Spanish university system
• Courses and universities in Spain
• Spanish Ministry of Education, Social Politics and Sports In Spanish.