| Ministry of Education | |
|---|---|
| Minister | Angel Gabilondo |
| General Details | |
| Primary Languages | Spanish alongside co-official languages within respective regions, including Catalan, Euskera/Basque and Galician |
| System Type | Democratic Constitutional Monarchy (check for accuracy) |
| 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 in each Region.
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Below Higher Education the system can be seen as consisting of four levels:
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).
Structured as three 2 year cycles:
Compulsory Secondary Education (Educación Secundaria Obligatoria or ESO) is structured as two cycles of two academic years each (total 4 years):
Upon finishing ESO the student has a number of options, including:
Spanish Bachillerato is the post-16 stage of education, comparable to the A Levels/Higher (Scottish) 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:
The specialist part has up to four subjects (depending on the branch taken).
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.
The Spanish School Leaving Certificate (ESO) is equivalent to a number of GCSEs/ or Standard Grades(in Scotland).
The Bachillerato is equivalent to A-levels/Scottish Highers . Therefore, Spanish students obtaining the appropriate grades required for entrance into universities in other parts of Europe, including Britain, are not precluded.
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.
Schools in Spain can be divided into 3 categories:
According to summary data for the year 2008-2009[1] 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.[1]
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.
Article 84 of the governing law [2] 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.
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.[3]
The royal decree governing the same process in Extremadura [4] includes admissions criteria structured in a very similar way but differing in the number of points allocated, notably for residence near to the school.
An analogous decree for 2007 governing the same process in Andalucia [5] is notably different again in the way it allocates points.
Broadly similar to the English three term system, but with slightly shorter holidays at Christmas (December 23-January 8) and Easter (one week - "Semana Santa"), and longer in the summer (normally from 15th June to 15th September) . 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.
Each year, there are several awards for excellent students:
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
Other universities of historical relevance and reputation are the University of Salamanca, University of Jaén and the University of Alcalá.
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