On May 9, the tiebreaker draw was made for school pre-registration for the 22-23 academic year. The number that came out will mark the families that will be able to access the requested school. In Barcelona, a group of more than 200 families afraid to stay without places for Infantile 3 (P-3) in the public centers close to their homes that they requested in the pre-registration. They have organized and claim the Barelona Education Consortium to take steps to fix the problem.
Families have made calculations and estimate that this course, excluding places reserved for students with special educational needs, there will be a lack of 800 P-3 places in public schools. Of these, 212 correspond to the Eixample district, 176 to Sant Martí, 119 to Horta-Guinardó, 110 to Sants, 74 to Gràcia and 109 to Sant Andreu.
One of these families is aurora redon. He pre-enrolled in school L’Univers of grace. It was his first choice and he has been left without entering. But that’s not the worst of it: “I put eight public school options. My daughter hasn’t entered any of them. All of them have been filled in first option. The one I put in second, Les Aigües, which normally had places for second and third option, this year it has already been filled,” she says desperately.
The L’Univers school offers 40 I-3 places and has received 69 applications in first option, so 29 of these are left out. This situation is repeated in other public centers in the area. The school Fructuos Gelabert It has received 72 applications in the first option for 35 ordinary places. And the Josep Maria Juliol has received 65 applications for 40 places.
in the same situation is Nacho Cecilia. He made the pre-registration for the Nou Graons school and put five other options. He hasn’t entered any of the six. He fears, and like him all the affected families, that the Consorci assigns them a public school outside the neighborhood or a concerted one in the neighborhood. They reject both options. “We want a public, secular and local school,” says Cecilia. She explains that the families are “very angry” and do not rule out organizing mobilizations this very week.
On May 27, the Consorci will publish a list of schools with vacancies to which these families could benefit. And on June 10, all of them will know which school they have been awarded. “This is not the right to choose a school or anything. This is a lottery,” Redon laments disappointed.
The drop in ratios
The deficit of public places it is not a novelty in spite of the descent of the natality. But this course, the affected families point out, the ‘decrease in ratios’ factor has come into play. And it is that Educació has planned that in Infant 3 the maximum number of students per classroom will be 20 students, instead of 25 as before.
This network of families believes that the decision to reduce ratios – one of the historical claims of the educational community – explains the lack of places. They denounce that this reduction in ratios, which they understand improves the quality of education, has not been accompanied by the opening of new lines in public centers. “This means poor planning of the supply of places and favors the concerted schools, which can maintain the ratios.”
They consider that “the priority” must be guarantee access to a nearby public school to the maximum number of families possible, for which they have demanded the ‘conseller’ of Education, Josep Gonzàlez-Cambray, and the Deputy Mayor for Education of the Barcelona City Council, Jordi Marti Graupresident and vice-president respectively of the Consorci, which reconsider the decision to reduce ratios course 22-23 and maintain the figure of 25 students per classroom. They also ask them to open new lines in public centers that may have space and resources.
They emphasize that for many families, being left without a place in a local public school can mean difficulties in reconciling and an economic cost if they end up being forced to enroll their children in a concerted school close to home.
In their attempt to find solutions to the lack of places, these families propose to the Consorci that check the calendar for the conversion into ordinary places reserved for students with special educational needs that have not been requested. This course, as a novelty and in application of the admissions decree, these places will remain, not until the day before the publication of the list of those admitted in the pre-registration, but until September 2, three days before the start of the course, scheduled for September 5 in infant and primary. These families ask the Consorci that, if it sees that the reserved places are not covered, they assign them to ordinary applications. “It generates a lot of anguish for families not being able to know until September which school their children will go to,” they point out.
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These families also ask for “more transparency” in the process of assigning places. “It cannot be that families who have not entered their first choice of school, but have entered their second or successive options, have to wait almost a month to find out which center their child has been assigned to,” they criticize. “That only adds to the uncertainty for these families, who are already in the middle of a very distressing process.” That is why they ask that on May 27 the provisional list of all children with an assigned place be published and that the name of the center be specified.
Sources from the Consorci have called for calm and have explained that they are still analyzing the data and that they will study how to respond to the demands of the families.