If you and your family are considering purchasing a home or land parcel from Paramount Places Spain, you may be curious about such things as the quality of education, your child or children will receive as a resident in Spain. We attempt to provide you an overview of what you may expect once you complete your relocation to our community in Villanova I la Geltru.

Basic education is obligatory and free of charge, and it is extended up to the age of 16, the legal age for starting employment. The innovative education system in Spain derives from the LOGSE (Law on the General Organization of the Educational System). Under the law, schooling is obligatory between the ages of 6 and 16 years. There are 6 years of compulsory primary schooling and 4 years of compulsory secondary schooling.

Children are usually 12 when they begin secondary school, but several would not have reached their 12th birthday when they progress up to high school because of having 12th birthdays, which fall in the autumn term. Below the age of 6 years, education is elective and provision will depend on what is offered in the neighborhood where one wishes to live.

It is common to send kids to school from about the age of 3 years but starting child’s school at this age is not mandated or legally required. Even though the academic year runs from September through June in Spain, the children begin compulsory schooling in the September of the calendar year in which they are 6 years old.

The educational structure includes general and special education, i.e. the diverse levels of education are tailored to suit students with particular needs.

Every student has basic vocational training, which is prearranged in secondary education. Specific vocational training is planned at two stages, the first at the closing stages of compulsory secondary education, and the higher level at the conclusion of the “Baccalaureate”.

Development in the quality of teaching must be accomplished through the renewal of the contents of the courses, upgrading in human resources and material resources, and enhanced use of the range of instruments of the educational system. Spiritual education must be offered at all schools, but it is voluntary for students. Special systems are applied for imaginative and arty education and language learning.

General education is organized as follows:

1. nursery infant education (0 – 6 years)
2. primary education (6 – 12 years)
3. compulsory secondary education (12 – 16 years)
4. post-compulsory secondary education, together with the baccalaureate and the middle grade of vocational training
5. upper grade vocational training
6. university education (to become university student a university entrance examination must be passed)

After the 1990 restructuring (LOGSE), secondary education (ESO) became compulsory, and it now lasts four years, following six years of primary education, and it leads to the graduation, which in turn took another two years. Both public and private institutions offer higher education. The Ministry of Education with the departments of higher education in the universities synchronizes the doings of state and private institutions and recommends the core lines of educational policy. The council of Universities sets up guidelines for the establishment of universities, centers, and institutes.

It can also suggest measures concerning advanced postgraduate studies, the defining of qualifications to be officially recognized throughout the country and standards governing the creation of university departments. The legislation on university autonomy provides for administrative, academic, and financial autonomy. All non-university state education is free in Spain, but parents have to purchase all of their children’s books and materials. There also are private schools for all the range of compulsory education, and graduation. At them, parents must pay a monthly/termly/yearly fee. Most of these schools are run by religious orders; some are even single sex schools.

Schools supply a list of what is required at the start of each school year, which will include art and craft materials as well as text and exercise books. Expect to spend a minimum of around ninety pounds (GBP) per child, but in some regions, the autonomous government is giving tokens to exchange them in book shops for free, this is being adapted in 2006 in regions like Andalusia, where kids from 3 to 10 will get the books for free, on the following years it is expected for all compulsory years. School uniform is not normally worn in state schools but is usually worn in private schools. All but the very smallest villages have their own primary school, and there is widespread coverage of school transport. Small village schools are grouped together under the auspices of their local teacher’s center for the provision of specialist teachers for subjects such as music, English, etc.

For those moving from the United States of America and similar countries, you will find the educational system in Spain is very much similar. In fact, many nations are adapting a similarly recognized and standardized system of education.