During the first weeks of the year, already at the gates of the school pre -registration, the anguish to know if the next course can maintain all the groups or even the entire center can be common in educational centers. The Bofill Foundation warned Tuesday through a report (they are schools of one line with more than 25% vacancies). These last weeks, at the end of this course and a third will be integrated into Escola Pia. And in the public they also fly over rumors in some centers, but for three years the Generalitat per classroom to avoid the closure of classrooms.
This initiative, which was launched in the 2022-23 course, has had a wide implementation in public centers (it is applied nine out of 10), but only half of the concerted (although 80% of these private centers They offer 20 to 25 places). But there are cases in which one step has been taken and has chosen to lose 20: they do it up to 849 classrooms (which represents 41% of the total), according to data presented a year ago by the Department of Education, which will update These figures this Friday in the presentation of the pre -registration process for the next course.
One of the cases where schools start with a ratio of less than 20 is, a municipality that made this decision long before it was implanted in a generalized education. They began to do it in the 2020-21 course, and also with an agreement between all schools, setting the ratio in 22 and 24 in. In 2023 one more step took place, going down to 18 and 20, respectively, but last year they decided to increase the ratio to meet all the demand.
Rosalia Márquez, Councilor for Education of Vilanova is satisfied with the initiative because in all these years they have managed to avoid classroom closure. “It is a success because it means being able to maintain the groups and welcome all living enrollment students.”
He took the same initiative in 2020 and year after year was reducing the ratio until he reached 20, both publicly and concerted. But in 2023 the public took another step and went down to 18 students per classroom. In the capital of Maresme they have also achieved the complicity of almost all private centers, although it admits that a couple of them got out of the pact and increased their offer. From the City Council they explain the planning arose from the Municipal School Council and was approved by a large majority in the plenary. They also consider that the measure “has allowed all schools, both public and concerted, remain open.”
The schools have also satisfactorily hosted the initiative and remember that the addresses have long claimed it as a way to avoid classroom closure. The director of the Angerrer de Mataró School, Juanjo Duran, explains that students have improved. “Teachers get better to all students and you can identify the difficulties of each one. Working with a group of 27 has nothing to do with one of 18 ″.
Cristian Carandell, Director School L’Arjau de Vilanova: “Reducing ratios is an essential measure to offer quality teaching is expressed. A student requires a lot of attention and if you have six less in class, then it shows. ” In addition, the benefits are also noticed by teachers. “The casualties and the level of stress have been reduced.”
Education defends that with the reduction of ratios the closure of 110 groups only in the past has been avoided, and 360 in three years. However, some have suffered this unwanted destination. Department statistics show that this course were offered 2,090 public groups of children3 (35 less than the previous year) and 934 concerted (four more). But in the end the demand in the public was greater than expected and it was necessary to enable 25 new groups, while the concerted lost 42.
With these figures, from the AFFAC, the association that groups the AFAS of the public school, criticize that the ratio reduction is not doing well in all places. “More groups are being closed than the necessary and it is being seen that there is more public demand than the system is offering,” says its director, Lidón Gasull. The entity criticizes that a public administration “the first thing to do is close groups of the public” and defends that if the excess offer of the concerted “the problem would be fixed and not to play public classrooms would not be fixed.”
From the Ustec union, the majority in the sector, are in favor of reducing ratios, “but without reducing public offer.” “What you can not do is close the groups to 18 or 20 and that the people who want to enter the public cannot do so and are forced to go to the concerted,” says its spokesman, Iolanda Segura, who at the same time asks What will happen when the trend is reversed. “So what will they do? Increase ratios again? If so, we will go out, ”he warns.
For its part, the Christian School Foundation, the most numerous employer of the concerted, regrets that private centers are not compensated when the ratio is reduced and proposes to the Department of Education to take advantage of this moment of birth decrease to increase the financing of the financing of These schools to have “a free education system like the one in health”, in which families do not have to pay quotas.
