Madrid (EFE) almost all the autonomous communities, according to the consultation made by EFE to the respective ministries of Education.
In the first three months of this year, 78,535 boys and girls were born in Spain, only 873 per day on average, which is the second lowest figure since there is data, only slightly surpassed by that of the same period in 2021. , in the middle of a pandemic.
Today there are 1,109 municipalities without children between 0 and 4 years old and the forecast indicates that in 2050 there will be 800,000 fewer students between 3 and 15 years of age. This sharp contraction will force schools to close, especially in rural areas, and to reduce the size of many others, according to the report “Spain 2050. Fundamentals and proposals for a National Strategy.”
One of the autonomous communities in which this phenomenon is seen more clearly is Andalusia: 27% of the 86,000 new entry places (3 years) will remain vacant in the 2023-2024 academic year and in the first cycle of Early Childhood Education, of zero to three years, of the 125,000 places offered -public and subsidized- there are 21,000 free.
In the last four years, the Andalusian community has registered a drop of 70,000 infant and primary students.
Catalonia, almost 2,000 children less this course
The next academic year a total of 57,459 Catalan students will start Infant 3, 1,967 less than in the current one, and 3,055 groups have initially been offered, of which 2,125 are from the public network and another 930 from the concerted one.
Based on what happened in the previous six years, the Ministry’s forecast is that the final groups will increase in the public network compared to the initial offer and that groups will close in the concerted one.
The estimated average ratio for the next course in Infant 3 is 18.8 students per group, the lowest in the last 10 years in Catalonia.
In Extremadura, 50% of the free places
In publicly funded centers in Extremadura there are 12,893 places for 3-year-old students. For the next academic year, a total of 6,269 places have been covered, leaving 6,624 unfilled.
It is common for around 50% of the available places to be filled because 65% of the educational centers are located in rural areas. In its commitment to rural areas, the Junta de Extremadura maintains centers open with a minimum of 5 students and there are currently 34 CEIPs with less than 20 children.
For example, in a town like Villalba de los Barros, with about 1,500 inhabitants, the school, with only one line, has a 3-year unit with 22 places, of which only between 8 and 12 school places are covered. This case can be extrapolated to 65% of centers in Extremadura.
Basque Country is different
In Euskadi the child enrollment situation is not comparable to that of Spain as a whole, since most children enroll when they are two years old.
For the 2023/24 academic year, 11,969 students of that age have applied for a place. For the 2022/23 academic year, 11,993 registered, in the previous academic year there were 12,481 and in the academic year 2020/21 they amounted to 13,785.
The gradual decrease responds, according to the Basque Government, to the decrease in the birth rate, although in the two previous years (between 2021 and 2023) the pandemic also influenced.
In La Rioja, the region with the smallest population in Spain, some 3,500 places for 3-year-old children have been offered for the next academic year. This course there were 2,261 applications, so some 1,240 have remained free. In neighboring Navarra, 4,455 places have been offered and 1,337 have become free.
The situation in the Valencian Community
The Valencian public education system offers 46,883 places for three-year-old babies for the next academic year, of which 41,147 are vacancies that have been offered at admission and the remaining 5,736 had already been assigned to students who are promoting 2-year-olds in education centers. early childhood education and the Grouped Rural Schools (CRA) that have classrooms for this age group.
According to the Ministry, 29,010 boys and girls have applied for the 41,147 vacancies in 3-year-old Infants, so 12,137 places remain to be filled.
From the Generalitat they justify this situation in which it is always necessary to offer more vacancies because otherwise it would be impossible to attend to phenomena such as unexpected schooling, in reference to municipalities where the population fluctuates a lot since its local economy depends on agricultural campaigns or services tourist.
It must also be taken into account that a large part of the territory is at risk of depopulation and has few children.
Madrid, a community without enough places
Of the 13,225 families that have applied for a place in nursery schools owned by the Madrid City Council, only 3,018 are listed as admitted, so just over 10,000 children from 0 to 3 years old have been left without a place next year.
According to the area of Families, Equality and Social Welfare of the municipal Executive, the number of places in the 2023-2024 academic year “will be 8,507, 439 more than at the beginning of the previous one.”
In total, 3,018 students are listed as admitted in ordinary modality and 118 in special education, so there are 10,006 children on the waiting list, 9,966 children in ordinary modality and 40 with special needs.
Galicia shields the right to a square
The Xunta guarantees a public school place for 100% of 3-year-old children. The demographic decline in Galicia, and therefore enrollment, is not something new in this course, since it is a dynamic that has been registered in recent years.
For example, in this course around 15,000 applications for places were received for children entering schools for the first time (mostly 3-year-olds, but also 6-year-olds for the first year of Primary) for 26,000 available.
In Castilla-La Mancha, the number of places offered for 3-year-olds is 21,997 and 13,842 have been provisionally awarded.