The Government of Catalonia has applied a modification to the system for renewing educational agreements that affects schools throughout the community. The measure implies that from now on, the renewal of agreements will be every six years in both primary and secondary education, unifying the deadlines that until now were different depending on the stage.
Closure of 283 groups and criteria applied
This change has meant the closure of 283 state-subsidized schools in Catalonia. Of these, 247 correspond to centers that have decided to maintain segregation by sex and, therefore, are outside the state-subsidized system. The Ministry has explained that the decision was based on two main criteria, legality and the overall planning of educational offerings.
"The one that the LEC says," insist sources from the Ministry, in reference to legality as the main criterion.
The rest of the closures affect schools whose groups were not historically filled and which, according to the Conselleria, did not meet the needs of the territory.
"Those that historically did not fill did not satisfy the needs of the territory and are the ones that we have not renewed," the Ministry has pointed out.
Review in June and new criteria
The renewal of concerts will be reviewed again in June, after the pre-registration period. Not reaching the minimum number of pre-registered students will also be a reason not to renew the concert. Among the 2,700 Catalan private subsidized centers, only nine are closing lines in I3, and in all cases, these are groups that historically did not fill up.
The Ministry has introduced the criterion of vegetative decrease of groups, which implies that if a school loses an I3 group, it will not be able to recover it in the future. This measure seeks to provide stability to the system.
"Stability has been sought. If you have the group up and running, renewal is automatic," defend sources from the Ministry.
Situation of the state-subsidized school
From the Ministry, they acknowledge the underfunding of subsidized schools and assure that they are working to improve this situation. The decisions made affect schools in Barcelona, Girona, Tarragona, and the rest of the territory, following the criteria established in current regulations.
"We recognize the underfunding of the subsidized school and we are working to improve this situation," they add from the Ministry.
The application of these changes marks a new scenario for the network of state-subsidized schools in Catalonia, especially for those centers that maintained sex segregation or that did not manage to cover the demand in their groups.