Educació denies that the oversupply of education caused by the drop in birth rates will increase segregation
“What matters is that educational quality improves and there is more personalized attention,” stresses the ‘conselleria’
Catalonia approved in February 2021 the admissions decree, an instrument to organize pre-registration, distribute places in a balanced way and avoid school segregation. The decree entered into force just one month before the start of pre-registration for the 21-22 academic year, with which the time frame to apply it was limited. This year, in the pre-registration for the 22-23 academic year, the decree will be deployed with “intensity and forcefulness”, as underlined Rachel Garciageneral director of Attention to Families and the Educational Community of the Department of Education.
Education wields the admissions decree as a basic weapon to combat the problem of segregation and rejects that the educational oversupply caused by the drop in birth rates will aggravate the problem, as stated in a report by the Bofill Foundation presented this Thursday. In this sense, Garcia points out that in this pre-registration a lowest offer of places than in previous years and that each course will be adjusted according to needs. The decree will help, he reiterates, to correct segregation.
The director general confirms that the ‘conselleria’ is aware of the drop in birth rates but emphasizes that what matters most is that “there is a increase in educational quality and more personalized attention to students”. “We started this course with the reduction of ratios in P-3 and we will extend it”, he adds.
Coordinated reservation
One of the measures pointed out in the Bofill report to prevent oversupply from aggravating segregation is the need to coordinate the offer between the public school and the concerted one. And this is one of the novelties that the admissions decree has introduced this year. “For the first time there has been a tighter and more coordinated reservation between the public and the concerted,” emphasizes Garcia. “There has already been a decrease in the initial offer in 70% of concerted schools and in 99% of public schools,” he points out, adding that when the places are filled, ordinary ones and those for students with special needs, will make a new readjustment. “This will help reduce segregation,” she insists.
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The decree places emphasis on the most vulnerable students and in this pre-registration a distinction is made between two types of students with special needs: those with educational needs derived from physical problems or learning disorders (they are SEN-A) and those with socioeconomically vulnerable students (SEN-B). Special incidence has been made in this last group. Previously, only two places per group were reserved for students with special needs and there was little detection until the moment of registration. Now, explains the person in charge of the pre-registration process, in application of the decree, there will be a seat reservation adjusted to the real needs of the environment and means have been put in place to increase detection of these students already from the pre-registration.
Another novelty is that the reservation of seats will be maintained, not until the day before the publication of the list of admitted, but until the start of the course. “In the summer months there are student additions and by keeping the reserves until September we will be able to detect vulnerabilities and redistribute the students more equitably,” Garcia affirms, admitting that before, when the reserve fell in June, it could be that a good part of the enrollment lives it was directed towards more complex centers, which is where there are more vacancies. “Student distributions will be made with criteria to combat segregation,” she guarantees.