The impact on public education in Girona from the privatization of two Opus Dei centers: "Everything is uncertain"

GironaNassima arrives at the Girona Municipal School Enrollment Office (OME) completely exhausted. She had an appointment at ten in the morning, and it's now past ten-fifteen. "I went to work this morning, convinced the appointment was for tomorrow... I'm so stressed out with all this pre-registration stuff," she exclaims. A single mother with three children, her middle son is autistic, she had a premonition of this situation three years ago. That's when she fought hard with the Education Department to prevent her eldest, now 14, from starting secondary school at the Opus Dei-run school for boys in Girona, Bell-lloc College. "I wanted him to go to a public school," she exclaims, "but they didn't give me any alternatives then, and now I'd better figure it out. I can see my eldest will have to go study on the other side of the city because there are no other options or places available."

She is one of more than two hundred families affected by the decision of Bell-lloc and Les Alzines, single-sex schools, to privatize and relinquish their funding agreement in order to continue segregating by sex. These two schools, with a total of 2,300 students, will begin the next academic year with a monthly fee of around 600 euros per child, as they lose their funding from the Catalan government. For months, the Girona City Council has been preparing for this entirely uncertain "impact" on public schools and institutes, where eleven new classes will be created, primarily in secondary education (ESO), to absorb the students leaving the Opus Dei schools. A "shockwave," in the words of the head of school enrollment, Héctor González, whose consequences will only be fully understood in two or three years, once the system is regulated again. And in a context of declining student enrollment, Girona finds itself in a diametrically opposed situation: scrambling to find classrooms and spaces, and doubling its staff to handle school pre-registrations. Both the city council and the schools involved proposed a gradual withdrawal of the funding agreement, but the Catalan government rejected it.

The news wasn't new, already which was announced last JuneBut the Department of Education added uncertainty right up until the last minute. School pre-registration began on March 4th and will continue until next Tuesday, and the funding agreement for preschool at Bell-lloc and Les Alzines schools had not yet been finalized. This is a stage in which both schools do not segregate by sex, and there was debate about whether the funding agreement would also be withdrawn at this stage. The department's final decision only came this week. According to sources at the Department of Education, the resolution has not yet been published in the Official Gazette of Catalonia (DOGC), but they are already indicating that it will contain "the denial of funding agreements at all stages" in both schools. Meanwhile, the option to choose between two schools was still being offered during pre-registration at the I3 level, which, according to Girona's Councilor for Education, Queralt Vila, was generating confusion and inequalities. The city council criticizes the department for doing things at the last minute and for making city employees "face the music."

Wave of privatizations

The case of Bell-lloc and Les Encinas in Girona is not isolated in Catalonia. L'Hospitalet de Llobregat is in a similar situation due to the privatization of the Xaloc and Pineda schools – which together have 2,800 students. In their case, it is also estimated that around two hundred students will begin the next academic year in public schools and institutes, which will entail opening about ten more classes. To avoid losing their funding agreement, three years ago the Opus Dei centers in Girona agreed to stop segregatingThe decision was accompanied by the inclusion, for the first time, of [the following] in the uniform. a culotte skirt for girlsBut this year, when the Catalan government renewed its review of funding for primary and secondary education, the decision was finally made to forgo the public funding agreement in order to maintain the single-sex model. However, in the case of Girona, Bell-lloc and Les Alzines are beginning a merger process that should culminate in 2030, using a single center in Can Gibert del Pla, to try to strengthen their operations and reduce costs.

"It's important to remember that the loss of the public funding agreement is not a decision made by the schools, but rather a consequence of a regulatory framework that has been changing in recent years," explain the principals of the Opus Dei schools in Girona, who maintain that "single-sex education is a sound pedagogical model that forms part of our educational identity." "In reality, the schools haven't changed; what has changed is the framework within which they must operate," they elaborate. In this process, they assert that they have tried to act with "maximum transparency and responsibility towards the families" and that "a significant number have formally expressed" their desire to remain involved in the project. To do so, a pre-reservation fee of 350 euros was required.

And what about the money from the concert?

The main victims of this privatization process are socioeconomically vulnerable students. Within the system, they are known as NESE B, a designation stemming from the implementation of... Pact against School SegregationSince the 2021-2022 academic year, all public and state-subsidized private schools have been required to offer a certain number of places in each grade to address educational inequalities and redistribute students, preventing overcrowding. Located between the Can Gibert del Pla and Sant Narcís neighborhoods of Girona, the Bell-lloc school has been gradually enrolling students from vulnerable families over the years. To fund their education, the Catalan Department of Education provides the school with an annual grant of €988 per student. This amount will increase to over €1,000 following an agreement signed this week between the Catalan government and state-subsidized private schools, based on the percentage of socioeconomically vulnerable students at each school.

Now, with the impact of the privatization and merger of the two Opus Dei centers in Girona, the principals of the public high schools where most of the new groups will be opened—nine in total, according to forecasts—are demanding that the money saved by the Catalan government on the subsidized private school system remain in the city. Rubén Pino, principal of the Montilivi High School, which will have a new group in the second year of ESO (Compulsory Secondary Education), explains: "Students are always welcome, but if the complexity of the school increases, the appropriate resources are necessary, because diversity without resources is a trap. In Girona, we have high schools that are quite strained." In this regard, Pino is asking the Catalan Department of Education to conduct an extraordinary review of the complexity of the schools this year. To meet the demand for new places in secondary schools, the percentage of students with specific needs (NESE B) in Girona has increased from around 15% to 50% per classroom across all schools in Girona, posing a risk to the fight against school segregation.

Is education becoming polarized?

In practical terms, Girona will go from having two private schools—three in practice if you include the one in Fornells de la Selva—to five. These are Montessori, Montjuïc Girona International School, Saint George School, and now Les Alzines (girls' school) and Bell-lloc (boys' school), which will eventually merge into a single school, perhaps with a new name. The City Council explains that enrollment in private schools has not increased in the last decade, but that the growth in the number of options is a sign of the social polarization we are experiencing, not only in education but also in other areas such as healthcare. However, it is also considered that, in a context of declining school enrollment, the new situation should help offset the closure of some school classes.

Faced with the uncertainty currently gripping the educational community in Girona, Sheila González, a researcher in educational inequality at the University of Barcelona (UB), calls for a shift in perspective, urging people to "hold on" and "distribute" students as much as possible to minimize the impact of the transition. In her opinion, Girona is finally overcoming the injustice of "elitist private schools." She cites as an example that of the 2,300 students in both schools, only 200, less than 10%, attend the public school. "One of the few things that worries me about the fight against segregation is these types of schools, because they essentially operate as private institutions, without a public function. Now we are resolving this problem," she points out. The proportion of private schools in Catalonia is around 1.5% because "until now it was disguised," while González explains that the typical figure in neighboring countries is between 3% and 5%.

Still in the midst of school pre-registration, it's difficult to take in the long view outside the OME office on Ciutadans Street. Most of the families queuing, like Nassima, are taking their children to schools that are about to be privatized. Aya is in her third year of ESO (secondary school), Mariam in her third year of primary school. They live in Santa Eugenia, and their mother, Naima, says she would love for them to continue going to Les Alzines every day because it's a "good school," but she says she can't afford the "1,500 euros a month" they're asking for. This past school year began with almost 31,000 fewer students in Catalan schools and institutes than the previous year due to the demographic decline. Charter schools also experienced a significant drop in enrollment. Private schools, which are still a minority, have not lost students and have grown slightly, according to departmental data. In Girona, the immediate, medium-term, and long-term impact of the merger of Bell-lloc and Les Alzines will need to be assessed, as well as the viability of privatization with fees significantly lower than those of other private schools in the city.