One in three cities lacks a municipal school enrollment office.

FrostThe 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.

According to the Department of Education's own definition, OMEs are "the reference point for assisting, informing, and guiding families regarding student admission procedures." This "serving and informing" encompasses a wide range of functions, from providing information to families regarding pre-registration to supporting newly arrived students, helping them find a school and apply for admission, and even explaining how the Catalan education system works. However, although Catalan schools have welcomed a significant number of new students in recent years, as currently shown in a study by the Bofill Foundation, one in three Catalan cities still does not have a municipal school enrollment office.

The Catalan Education Law (Lec) recommends that a municipality have an OME if it meets one of these two requirements: having more than 10,000 inhabitants or having more than four schools, whether public or private. Despite this recommendation, according to Bofill's calculations, 36% of Catalan municipalities that meet one of these requirements still do not have this resource in operation.

13 cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants do not have

"This lack is very serious because when a family reaches the middle of the school year, this municipal office is the first door they knock on to approach the school world," denounces Maria Segurola, head of advocacy and policies against school segregation at the Bofill Foundation. According to the same study, Catalan municipalities without OME concentrate a total population of up to 1,063,899 inhabitants.

Among the towns that do not have a municipal school enrollment office in operation are some of the largest Catalan cities, such as Cornellà de Llobregat, Castelldefels, Esplugues de Llobregat, Tortosa, Sant Joan Despí, Sant Pedro de Ribes, Calafell, Pineda de Mar, Castellar del Vallès, and Olesa Vilassar de Mar; all of them with more than 20,000 inhabitants.

"The fact that such a high proportion of residents still lack this resource is worrying, since, on the one hand, the law recommends having OMEs (General Education Organizations), and on the other, the Department of Education has resources allocated to ensure this resource exists," Segurola insists. According to the information provided by Educació on its website, "any municipality can establish an OME as long as it has the necessary human and material resources." However, it also specifies that "it is especially advisable" to have one when one of the two requirements mentioned above is met.

In fact, according to the regulations, if a municipality has more than 10,000 inhabitants or at least four schools, at least one of which offers compulsory secondary education, it is now eligible to apply for a grant to create an OME.

To get an idea of ​​the importance of this resource, we can look at the example of Barcelona, ​​​​which has five permanent OMEs and four temporary ones that open during school pre-registration periods. Between 2023 and 2024, the number of children under 15 in the Catalan capital has grown by 30,000 children and adolescents, and between September 1, 2023, and August 31, 2024, the OMEs handled a total of 62,075 inquiries and requests.

Key in school planning

Beyond providing information to families, municipal education offices are key to implementing balanced school planning that helps combat the school segregation in Catalonia. These offices are responsible for the implementation of educational strategies and the resulting school planning and reservation of places in schools.

"The municipal education offices perform data analysis, observing trends in family triage with applications, which is key to detecting whether measures or changes are necessary," insists Segurola de Lleida. The municipal school enrollment offices "are doing very good work and are achieving good results." "There are highly motivated professionals with very good practices who demonstrate that they perform an essential task both in terms of providing information to families and mechanisms for balanced school enrollment," she concludes.