Introduction
The spanish education system
Although Spain’s state schools aren’t among the best in Europe, the Spanish educational system has improved dramatically in the last few decades. Until the ’80s, there were insufficient places in state schools in many areas and parents who could afford it were forced to pay for private education.
However, since those dark days, the education budget has increased considerably (although at 5.3 per cent of gross domestic product/GDP it’s still one of the lowest in the European Union/EU) and Spain’s educational system underwent profound (and long overdue) reforms in the ’80s and early ’90s, during which it was in a constant state of development. Most changes were necessary, although some have been controversial and haven’t met with universal support from parents and teaching staff.
The educational system is still in a state of flux and several new reforms are pending. The latest, known as the Ley Orgánica de Calidad ( LOE), intend to improve the quality of Spanish education. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) education report released placed Spanish education in one of the worst positions and highlighted the fact that Spain has the highest percentage of unqualified school leavers in OECD countries. In the light of this report, the government promised a huge (and long overdue) injection of public funds into the education system. On the other hand, education in Spain is one of the most egalitarian and accessible in the world (the PISA report – see below – placed Spain eighth in terms of equal access to education, well ahead of the UK and the US).
Education is compulsory for all children aged between 6 and 16. The Spanish take education very seriously and have a deep respect and thirst for learning that isn’t found in many other countries. In the current highly competitive labour market, parents and students are acutely aware that academic qualifications and training are of vital importance to obtain a good job.
Public and private schools in Spain
Spain’s state-funded school system ( escuelas públicas) is supported by a comprehensive network of private schools ( escuelas privadas), including many foreign and international schools. Around one-third of Spain’s schoolchildren attend private schools, most of which are co-educational day schools. State education in Spain is almost exclusively co-educational and is entirely free, from nursery school through to university (and includes the children of foreign residents).
Spanish education levels
Over 90 per cent of children aged three to five attend nursery school and over 55 per cent of students remain in full-time education until they’re 18, around 25 per cent going on to vocational training and 30 per cent to university. Education standards at Spain’s finest universities are comparable with the best in Europe, although they’re generally overcrowded. Foreign parents who can afford it often send their children to foreign universities, particularly American and British universities, where courses are shorter and more flexible than in Spain.
Critics of the Spanish education system complain that its teaching methods are too traditional and unimaginative, with the emphasis on learning by rote. It has also been plagued by poor teacher training, badly motivated and poorly paid teachers, and a high student failure rate, although all have improved in the last decade. PISA assessed students in some 31 countries in three areas, language comprehension, mathematics and science, and Spanish students came 18th, 23rd and 19th respectively, far behind France, New Zealand and the UK, although ahead of Germany and Italy.
Generally, the younger a foreign child is when he enters the Spanish system, the easier he copes. Conversely the older he is, the more problems he has adjusting, particularly as the school curriculum is more demanding. Teenagers often have considerable problems learning Spanish and adjusting to Spanish school life. Many foreign parents prefer to educate younger children in Spanish nursery and primary schools, where they quickly learn Spanish, and to send children of secondary school age to a private school.
Despite the difficulties, however, for many children, the experience of schooling and living in a foreign country is a stimulating change and a challenge they relish, and it offers invaluable cultural and educational experiences. Children become ‘world’ citizens and are less likely to be prejudiced against foreigners and foreign ideas. This is particularly true when they attend an international school with pupils from different countries, although many state schools also have students from a number of countries and backgrounds, especially in Barcelona, Madrid and resort towns on the costas. Before making major decisions regarding your children’s future education, it’s important to consider their ability, character and individual needs.
Information about Spanish schools
Information about Spanish schools, state and private, can be obtained from Spanish embassies and consulates abroad, and from foreign embassies, educational organisations and government departments in Spain. Information about local schools can be obtained from town halls ( ayuntamientos). The Ministry of Education and Science (Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia) provides a general information service at its central office open Mondays to Fridays from 9am to 2.30pm (Servicio de Información, C/Alcalá, 36, 28071 Madrid, 902-218 500, http://www.mec.es ). The autonomous regions also have their own education offices in regional capitals.
In addition to a detailed look at the Spanish state school system and private schools, this section also contains information about higher education and language schools in Spain. For up-to-date information about educating your children in Spain, visit our website devoted to expat kids, Expat-Kids.com .
Also in this section
- Introduction: The spanish education system
- Pre-School education: Kindergarten and nursery schools in Spain
- State schools: Grades, enrolment and school-hours in Spain
- School life in Spain: Language, holidays and school hours
- Private schools in Spain: School degrees, fees and other criteria
- Making the right choice: How to choose a private school
- Higher Education: Universities, qualifications and fees
- Studying in Spain: Applications and costs
Comments from other users
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Disaster
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Spanish educative system
I will give a clear example. Two friends study to be foreign language Elementary teachers. The friend A decides to study Oposiciones, the friend B decides to goes to London to study a prestigous Master in English as foreign language for two years, a Master recognized all over the world. The friend A is lucky, he studied 10 topics from the 25 and one of the topics that he studied is choosen by random( one opositor pick up 3 balls from a bag and opositores chose one and write about it (private organisations has usually made those topics in advance what is a big bussiness because opositores usually go to those places to study oposiciones, of course paying an amount of money per month).I dont deny that many opositores make the topics by themselves. The rest of oposiciones, practice exercices and everything has been given to them from another person that`passed oposiciones two years ago. He pasS and have a job for the rest of his life although his level of English it is not good. The friend B goes back to Spain after two years but in spite of the incredible Master he needs to pass the oposiciones. Teachers like Friend A will be in charge of evaluate frien B.If friend B is not lucky with the topics probably he won´t pass the oposiciones.
I don´t want to forget to say that the teachers that evaluate the opositores has the exactly same universitary degree and they can have worst grades and curriculum vitae (CV) than the people that they are testing. What is from my point of view worst, they don´t have any preparation in testing!!
On the other side opositores that ar4e working in a school as interin teachers don´t have enough time to prepare their classes well because of the big amount of time thatthey need to spend to study Oposiciones
This reallity should be known
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tribunales
The tribunales in Oposiciones in charge of testing doesn´t have any qualification in testing. They are just teachers like the people they are testing
Thank you. Your comment will be published once it has been approved by the moderators. -
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Spanish Education System
I am a British student who has lived in Spain since the age of 9, I´m now 18 years old and I´m applying to go to University in the UK.
I went to a Spanish state school and I´ve experienced primary, secondary (ESO) and post-obligatory education (Bachiller) in the Spanish education system.
The Spanish education system is said to be one of the worst and I have to say I agree. I graduated in the top three students of my school with very good grades, but I´ll be very lucky to get into any university outside of Spain, the Spanish education system´s reputation amongst international universities is very bad.
I think the main problem with the education out here lies within the last two years of schooling, "Bachiller", it´s basically the equivalent of the A-level, but in Spain the coursework you do at school, most importantly the continuous exams, is more important than the actual A-level style exams you take at the end of your 2nd year. I must have taken more than 100 exams across 9 different subjects over the last academic year. These exams are done at your school and evaluate your current knowledge of the coursework, your exams are graded then the scores are averaged out to give you your final qualification at the end of the year which is used to get into uni. The biggest setback is that the education system forces you to take 5 mandatory subjects along with 4 subjects of your own choice. So in Spain you are effectively taking 9 "A-levels", and as I said you´re are forced to take 5 "A-levels" which usually have no use for you whatsoever in your future uni course. For example I want to study Mechanical Engineering, so I chose Maths, Physics, Technical Drawing and Earth Science as my four choices, but I was also forced to take a-levels in spanish language, catalan language, philosophy, Spanish History and English language, which are pretty useless for my shosen uni course.
The consequence of this system is that I´m less specialised in maths and physics (necessary for engineering) than my counterparts in the UK, but I do know a lot about philosophy. (which is obviously useless for engineering)
So foreign universities are asking me for ridiculous grades which nobody could achieve.
The article also states that 55% of students stay in education until they´re 18. I´d say it was more like 25% (and I´m being very generous here)
Out of the 175 students I started secondary education with at the age of 12, around 25 stayed in school till the last year.
Finally, out of the 60 or 70 British ex pats who I´ve known over the last 5 or 6 years at my school, only two have graduated from the State school system, and one of them is me.Thank you. Your comment will be published once it has been approved by the moderators.
Firstly I would like to point out that the tribunal is formed by teachers that can have less experience that the people they are testing. A person with four years of experience can test another with twenty! I have found really good teachers tested by his olds students!
Secondly, the tribunal mostly doesn’t know the topics better than the opositores that they are testing. They have those topics over the table and they have to check it all the time. Those topics mostly have being made by private academies where the people go to prepare the oposiciones and to study it. I suppose some remember a little but nothing else.
Third. It is compulsory write down a bibliography even when the topics has been made by a private organization and there is nothing made by the students (remembering that the students can be teachers with a lot of experience, with family, kids and obligations). You have to learn the name of the books by heart when practically nobody has read those books in the oposiciones.
In primary, you have to learn 25 topics by heart and then memorize a program and talk about it for 30 minutes. You have to memorize then a didactic unit with activities and say that in front of the tribunal like a parrot during 45 minutes. Those activities are prepared in advance so the private academy or anybody else can do it and the student only needs to memorize it.
All this process happens every two years and there are teachers that have been doing that for more than twenty years. The system changes sometimes and the topics too.
Remembering that tribunal and people that is studying oposiciones studied at the university the exactly same degree and probably a lot of the teachers that want to pass the oposiciones are much better prepared than the tribunal and with much more degrees and experience but they have family, kids, much more things to think about than a 23 years student and of course they can not study 5,6,7 hours per day. With that system the best teachers have the door closed.
I have friends in different countries. They don’t want to go back to Spain because they are 40 or more years old and they have no time to study such a hard and nosense exam that doesn’t show they real skillfulness. In Spain people doesn’t speak English and the level of English of the teachers in the Primaries schools can be terrible but the system can reject real bilingual ones
In fact people living in London for example and with a terrific level of English can be tested by teachers that practically never went abroad or only in summers ….and they don´t understand what they are talking about.I don’t know if I should smile or cry…
Teachers that have to study oposiciones can stay without any permanent job for the rest of their lifes. They are hired for two years and then they are fired to be hired again (or not) depending on the oposiciones. In that way they never adquire any right
This is the shameful system in Spain. One of the worst educative systems on the developed world and one of the systems with more failures in Europe
If you have any doubt or have any question write me to