A total of 342 students will leave Bell lloc and Les Alzines next academic year due to the merger of both centers and their transition to private ownership. The figure, based on school pre-registration data closed on March 18, almost completely confirms the initial forecast of the Girona City Council, which had calculated 348 departures.
The distribution of affected students places 58 students in Infant, 116 in Primary and 168 in ESO. The final adjustment is six fewer students compared to the previous municipal estimate, in a process that forces a reorganization of the city's public offering for the next academic year.
Two more groups in Primary and general reinforcement in Secondary
The planning maintains the need to open two additional groups in Primary, a measure already foreseen by the Generalitat and the Girona City Council in the planning commission. These new groups could be located in the Josep Dalmau i Carles school and in the Cassià Costal.
In Secondary, the forecast involves opening 10 groups to absorb the students who will leave Bell lloc and Les Alzines. In the initial offer, all public high schools in Girona will incorporate at least one new group to assume the impact of the departure of students from the two centers linked to Opus Dei.
The distribution of the students, pending the psycho-pedagogical evaluation
The Councillor for Education, Queralt Vila, explained that now the profile of the enrolled students will have to be specified to complete the distribution of places.
"Now the EAP, the psycho-pedagogical guidance and counseling teams, will have to determine, based on all pre-registrations, how many children are ordinary and how many have socio-educational needs" - Queralt Vila, Councillor for Education
The councilwoman had already warned weeks ago of the magnitude of the scenario that opens in the city.
"Girona faces a colossal challenge" - Queralt Vila, Councillor of Education
Municipal concern for the balance between centers
From the Education area, it is insisted that the departure of Bell lloc and Les Alzines from public planning may alter the distribution of students with more support needs. Vila maintained that when centers with the capacity to attract certain profiles remain outside the public circuit, complexity concentrates in fewer schools and high schools, especially in the public network and in some specific neighborhoods.
The councilwoman defended that the City Council works to achieve the most balanced distribution possible, although she recognized that the city will now have two fewer centers within that planning. In her opinion, this situation stresses teaching teams, complicates educational projects, and can consolidate segregated itineraries from the first school stages.
With pre-registration already closed, Girona now enters the definitive adjustment phase of groups and places to fit the 342 affected students into the public network next academic year, with special attention to Primary and to the capacity of the institutes to assume the increase in enrollment.