Negotiation to reduce student-per-class ratios continues. This Thursday, the Ministry of Education presented a new proposal to the teaching unions that contains two main changes. The first consists of accelerating the process so that the size of the groups decreases in all educational stages. And the second, the commitment that those educational centers that, due to their structure, cannot create additional groups (for example, because they are small and have only one line), will still receive the increase in additional teaching staff that would correspond to them if they did not have said impediment.
The Government undertakes in the new draft bill to approve within six months (instead of within one year as initially anticipated), from the entry into force of the law that will establish the reduction of ratios in primary school (from 25 to 22 kids per class) and in ESO (from 30 to 25), the decree that will specify the decreases in the rest of the educational stages, from preschool to high school. The Government hopes to be able to approve this law before the end of the current school year.
The implementation schedule of the ratio reduction, however, does not vary from the previous proposal. The decrease in the second cycle of preschool and primary school will begin to be applied at the lowest levels in September 2027; in ESO, in September 2028, and in high school, at the beginning of the 2029-2030 academic year. The implementation will be progressive in each stage, but it will have to be completed in September 2031. Students with special educational needs (disability or autism) will begin to count double for ratio purposes starting next year (2026-2027).
The calendar will reduce the immediate economic impact of the measure, which will be assumed by the autonomous communities, and will be facilitated by the natural decline in the student body due to the drop in the birth rate.
The decree, which must be approved six months after the law comes into force, will also establish “reference indicators” to determine which educational centers will receive special treatment. This may take the form of both a specific reduction in the maximum ratios and an increase in personal and material resources. These centers will be selected for the purpose of “schooling a high number of students with specific educational support needs, because they are located in areas of special social complexity or to improve success, promotion, and graduation rates and reduce school dropout rates.”
More specialized support
The ministry is also committed to regulating “the minimum conditions for the provision of specialized support that promotes inclusive education in all educational centers that responds to the diversity of students in terms of interests, abilities and needs.” This formula, demanded by the unions, anticipates a state regulation that establishes a minimum number of specialized personnel based on the students in need of educational support (such as dyslexia, ADHD or lack of knowledge of the classroom language) in a school or institute.
The intention of the Ministry of Education is to approve the draft bill in the Council of Ministers before the end of the year, so that the first planned measures – such as the reduction of teaching hours for teachers and the fact that students with special educational needs (such as disabilities or autism) count double for ratio purposes – can come into force in September 2026.
For the law to be approved, the Government will have to gather the necessary support in Congress.
