"I have a school very close to home, but there are so many vulnerable students." "I've found a high school with resources, good teachers, and attractive facilities, but it takes in too many immigrants and children from dysfunctional families." "I'm interested in a school's educational project, but it's extremely complex..." Now that school pre-registration is approaching, it's no surprise to hear phrases like these, which contribute to the continued high level of segregation in our education system. The problem is not solved, even though the [report/document/report/etc.] was published in 2019. Pact against School Segregation, signed by the Catalan Ombudsman, the Catalan Government, and several city councils.

"Today, more female students can share a classroom with classmates from their neighborhood than in the past." This was one of the conclusions presented this Thursday by the director of the Bofill Foundation, Ismael Palacín, at the presentation of the study. The charter school today. Unlike what the data showed just a decade ago, today, six years after the National Pact against Segregation, the system is beginning to see a significant improvement, especially with the change in the role of a large part of the subsidized schools.

Although very slowly, it appears that the measures adopted within the framework of the 2018 pact against school segregation are beginning to bear fruit. This is indicated by the report presented this Wednesday by the ombudsman.Twenty priorities for action to combat school segregation in Catalonia." According to this document, in the last seven school years, school segregation in Catalonia has been reduced by almost 25%: it has fallen by 27.9% in elementary schools and 22.9% in high schools.

A sociologist, social educator, and professor of sociology of education at the University of Vic (UVic), Jordi Collet doesn't understand diversity as anything other than normal, and therefore, he doesn't understand why it's experienced internally as a problem. He advocates a change of perspective and a rethinking of schools to utilize resources differently than previously. He explained this in a lecture at the Escola Projecte, as part of the presentation of the first Hermini Tudela Foundation awards, which specifically seek best practices in inclusion.

The Minister of Education, Esther Niubó, announced on Monday that only from the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year Up to 74,328 new students have entered the Catalan education system outside the ordinary registration period.This is what is known as the "enrollment in Catalonia" process, and it is basically the way to enroll students who, for whatever reason, have had to change schools or colleges mid-year, or students who arrive in Catalonia once the school year has started and are entering the system for the first time. Especially for families in the latter case, but also for many of the former and for students who pre-enroll in a school through the regular process, one of the key resources for finding their way around and learning about the schools and colleges available nearby are the municipal school enrollment offices (OMEs), but not all cities in the country have them.

Montse Duran is the Director General of Public Schools in the Department of Education. She spoke to ARA after the announcement made on Monday that 74,328 students enrolled in Catalan schools during this school year alone—outside of the regular enrollment period.

Starting next year, the Department of Education plans to incorporate historical enrollment figures—students who enter a school or secondary school after the school year has already begun and registration has closed—into the school place planning process for each region. The development was announced this Monday by the Minister of Education, Esther Niubó, in a parliamentary committee after making public a key piece of data: since the start of the 2024-2025 school year, up to 74,328 new students have entered the Catalan education system outside of the regular enrollment period. This is 11,000 more children and adolescents than those who arrived last year.

One of the main transmission channels of poverty is the low educational level of families. This is the thesis defended this Wednesday by experts from the Catalonia Children's Platform of the Third Social Sector Roundtable and the Bofill Foundation. The statement is not just a perception, but a reality that the data confirms: a boy or girl from a family without studies has six times greater risk of being poor than one with parents who have higher education.

In the last fifteen years, the birth rate in Catalonia has fallen by 37%. Next year, for the first time, this drop in births will affect all educational years, from I3 to 4th year of ESO. This situation forces the Department of Education to decide: either reduce the ratios – with the consequent need for more spaces and professionals – or close lines in schools and institutes that see how the classrooms are becoming increasingly empty. "School planning is what can end up making your child end up in a middle-class ghetto," said the director of the Bofill Foundation, Ismael Palacín, on Tuesday.

Efforts to combat school segregation have not made the grade. In fact, in some respects it is getting worse. Two years ago, political institutions and the educational community committed themselves in a solemn pact to combat this problem, one of the main problems that hinder the quality and fairness of the system. The initiative was promoted by the Department of Education and the Catalan Ombudsman, and practically everyone joined in, including private schools and the various players in education. But so far those good intentions have remained a dead letter. Too often writing good laws and good reports is relatively easy, but putting them into practice is another matter. This should not be the case.

The Department of Education is in breach of the pact against school segregation it promoted alongside with the Catalan Ombudsman two years ago, one of the main problems of the education system. Although the agreement makes it clear that the administration has to protect "complex" centres, where students come from more disadvantaged backgrounds, the Generalitat assigned 6,101 children to these schools after the start of the 2019-20 academic year, a practice considered harmful for schools. In fact, one in three students who requested a place halfway through the year ended up in a "ghetto school", that is, a school with a much higher concentration of foreign students. The non-compliance is so great that 83% of "complex" schools in Catalonia enrolled students after the beginning of the year, which is explicitly forbidden by the pact and aggravates these schools' situation, according to a study by the Fundació Bofill.

The new attempt by the Catalan Government to withdraw subsidies for the eleven single-sex schools in Catalonia has caused a stir in the education sector. In spite of the fact that the Education Department had already announced its intention three years ago, the approval of the new education law has opened a new crack that establishes schools supported "partially or totally with public funds" must develop "the principle of coeducation in all educational stages" and "will not separate the pupils by gender". However, as this part of the law is being examined by the Constitutional Court, which is yet to rule, schools and families are confident that the announcement will not have consequences and that the court will overrule it again. For the affected families, withdrawing the subsidies is an "attack on plurality and diversity".