Education changes the rules of the game for holding concerts in schools

BarcelonaThe government of Salvador Illa has decided to change the criteria for determining when a school is granted public funding and when its application is denied. This year was the time to renew these agreements—when public funding is provided to private schools to operate as public institutions—for all educational levels, and the Department of Education has taken advantage of this opportunity to bring order to this procedure within the legal framework. One of the most significant changes introduced is that from now on all agreements will have a duration of six years. Currently, agreements are for three years in preschool, six years in primary school, and four years in secondary school. According to the Department of Education, this uniform duration aims to "provide stability to the system." Furthermore, as has been repeatedly stated, public funding will not be granted to schools that segregate by gender, that is, that separate classes for boys and girls. This has led to up to 247 groups of subsidized schools and institutes in Catalonia becoming private, as the center has chosen not to receive public funding and to continue segregating by gender.

Changes in second chances

At the same time, a change has been implemented that has already drawn criticism from private schools. Until now, when a private school didn't have enough students to fill a class in the third year of preschool (I3), it wasn't granted funding, but it was allowed to try again when students transitioned to primary school. Now, the Department of Education will not allow this second chance across the board: if a class isn't filled in a given year, the school will lose funding for that class throughout preschool and primary school. The department justifies this by stating that, due to the demographic decline, they estimate a decrease of 20 classes each year, and therefore it's unlikely that if a class is closed in I3, there will be enough students in subsequent years to reopen the class for that year. However, the Department of Education has also explained that there will be occasions, especially in private schools in smaller towns, where opportunities will be given to try to fill classes that didn't reach the minimum enrollment in previous years. Specifically, what will happen is that if a group that had received funding but loses it because it doesn't have enough students, the following year it will have the opportunity to receive funding again if it meets the minimum number of students required (14). Next year this will be tested with 25 schools.

According to the associations of charter schools, this change will mean that over the six years that the funding agreements will now last, "around 165 groups and more than 300 jobs" will be lost. They claim that the new criteria were not communicated to them beforehand and that they submitted objections, which were not accepted. Furthermore, they warn that all of this jeopardizes the distribution of mid-year enrollment—children who arrive mid-year—and of students with special educational needs.

Fifty new groups in public secondary schools

Regarding school planning for the upcoming academic year, there has also been a change of course. While this 2025-2026 academic year saw the closure of approximately fifty first-year ESO (lower secondary) classes in public schools, the Department of Education has announced plans to open 53 for the next academic year. According to the department, this decision aims to continue leveraging the declining student population to reduce class sizes. At the same time, the department clarifies that the difference compared to last year is due to "territorial diversity," since, although the overall number of students is decreasing, there are towns where there are more students in the sixth year of primary school, and therefore, this situation must be addressed. An example is Sant Boi de Llobregat, where three first-year ESO classes are expected to open next year. In contrast to the trend in public schools, the semi-private (subsidized) secondary school network anticipates approximately fifteen fewer first-year classes.

Regarding the preschool stage, in I3 – the planning stage, as it marks the beginning of this educational phase – groups will be lost in both public and private schools. It is anticipated that there will be 20 fewer groups in public schools and 14 fewer in private schools, although in the case of private schools, the initial offering will be somewhat higher than this year and is expected to decrease again after enrollment.

Ratios of fewer than 20 students in I3

Regarding the number of students per classroom, the Government anticipates that 96% of public schools will have 20 or fewer students in the third year of primary school (I3), and that no group will have more than 23 students. This ratio is primarily due to the fact that next year there will be 1,700 fewer students starting preschool than in the current year. As for the first year of secondary school (1º de ESO), the Department of Education has not specified the student-teacher ratios for the next academic year, despite the plan to open approximately fifty groups in public schools. In the last update, for the 2025-2026 academic year, 97% of the first-year secondary school groups had a ratio of 30 students or fewer.

Pre-registration begins on March 4th

This year, school pre-registration will begin in two weeks. From March 4th to 18th, it will be the turn of students starting preschool and primary school, and those entering secondary school will have to pre-register between March 6th and 18th. Regarding the internal process, the provisional scores for each student will be released on April 15th. On April 29th, the ranking based on scores will be announced, and finally, the definitive list of students who have been offered a place at each school will be published on June 10th.