The draft law prepared by the Ministry of Education passed one of its last stops this Friday before being sent to Congress, where the Government hopes to approve it within three months so that it can begin to be applied in a phased manner from September. The minister, Milagros Tolón, has presented the project to the autonomous communities at the Education Sector Conference. The PP autonomies have demanded that the Executive provide extra funds to finance a measure that the territories will have to apply, and several have asked to paralyze the start of its application or extend the deadlines to carry it out.
The new minister has assured that the Government is open to listening and “enriching” the text until it is approved in Congress. But he added that its essence will remain “as planned.” It is, he said, “a demand that is very dear and long awaited by teachers,” demanded by the entire “educational community.”
The agreement reached by consensus has consisted of the constitution of a working group within the Sectoral Conference that will work in parallel with the processing of the law, and will be able to make contributions to the text, without implying a slowdown of the process. “The analyzes of the working group will be incorporated into the draft law,” said the Secretary of State for Education, Abelardo de la Rosa.
Tolón has also stated that the law will have an economic report that will reflect the economic impact of the measure, although without committing to the additional financing requested by the autonomies. The minister recalled the large amount of funds that the Government has transferred to the autonomous communities in recent years for objectives such as expanding Early Childhood Education and Vocational Training places, as well as programs to improve educational performance such as PROA+.
The draft for the lowering of the ratio, which the ministry negotiated with the teaching unions, contemplates a reduction in the maximum number of students per class from 25 to 22 in Primary and from 30 to 25 in ESO. And the commitment to approve, since the approval of the law, a decree with reductions in other studies (second cycle of Infant, Basic FP and Baccalaureate). It also provides that students with disabilities will be counted twice for the purpose of calculating the ratio. The latter would begin to apply from September. And the rest of the reductions would be implemented from the following year, 2027-2028 in Early Childhood and Primary (starting with the first level of each stage and ascending from there), and in 2028-2029 in ESO. For the 2031/2032 academic year it should be in force in all courses.
The autonomous communities start from different situations. A good part of the territories have already undertaken, at least in some stages, reductions in the ratios taking advantage of the decline in birth rates. Although in 11 of them, according to a report from the STES union, the maximum ratio in Primary is still at 25. And several autonomies, including those that account for almost three quarters of the students (Andalusia, Catalonia, Madrid and the Valencian Community), maintain the limit of 35 students per class in Baccalaureate. The situation of school facilities – one of the consequences of lowering the ratio is that more classrooms are needed – is also uneven. The demographic decline means that educational centers have more and more space, but in some areas and autonomous communities the situation remains complex. One of these places is the Balearic Islands – due to a combination of lack of land and lack of foresight during the regional executives of the PP -, which has demanded specific funds for this issue.
The ministry considered several formulas to reduce the number of students and finally opted for the law. A more complex path, since the Government fights in each vote to gather the necessary support. But it is the only way to shield the declines in both the ratio and the maximum number of teaching hours for teachers (18 in Secondary and 23 in Early Childhood and Primary), the other measure included in the law.
The Executive believes that the popularity of both measures, which will benefit more than 700,000 public and subsidized education teachers, makes it difficult for the groups to overturn the initiative in Congress. And the fact that the preliminary project went ahead without opposition, and that this Friday objections to the deadlines were raised and funds were requested to execute them, but there was no rejection of the substance of the issue, seem to reinforce its possibilities.
The press asked the minister before entering the meeting what she thought about the EsadeEcPol report, published this Wednesday, although it does have other positive effects, such as an increase in the well-being of teachers and the satisfaction of families. Tolón has stated that, for students, “being in a crowded classroom is not the same as being in a classroom where they can be treated with dignity by the teachers.” And he added that, in any case, “the fact that the teachers are better” is also important, and “it has a very favorable impact on the students and families.”
