The fight against school segregation is bearing fruit. Barcelona, which began the plan to reduce the concentration of students from vulnerable families in certain centers before the rest of Catalonia, has a level of 87% of “balanced centers”, that is, the socioeconomic composition of its classrooms is similar. to that of the neighborhood.
There are just over 9% of schools that still have more vulnerable students with respect to the area in which they are located (together, about 35), and 3.5% of schools that have not yet taken responsibility for the situation and fewer vulnerable students are enrolled than they should be (14 in total).
The success has been due to early detection of social vulnerability, a reservation of places and the support of the minor with an economic backpack to compensate for family shortcomings. Also a policy of compensation for centers to prevent centers that are in high demand for their educational projects and others that are less in demand from coexisting in the same area.
These figures mark a hopeful path for the rest of Catalonia not only because the equitable distribution of students with socioeconomic and cultural vulnerability is a matter of justice and social cohesion but also because it improves student performance. Thus, the difference between the average Catalan grade and that of low-income students was 10 points in the 2020-2021 academic year (73 compared to 63) and two years later it has been cut to 7.6 (72.9 compared to 65.3).
These data dispel many suspicions of the families that were expressed and put tension in some centers, according to the Consorci d'Educació of Barcelona, which is the author of the school shock plan five years ago, three before they began to distribute the economic backpacks throughout the School Segregation Pact.
The groups have not become “corrupted” with the arrival of students from more precarious families, nor has the group's grade dropped (the pandemic had an impact on everyone). On the other hand, new students, who would not have been enrolled in that center if the administration had not provided them with financial resources, have improved their academic level. If the group shoots, the child shoots, even though his parents do not have a higher degree.
Likewise, the level of school absenteeism, which was more evident in institutes with a high concentration of poverty, has been reduced.
Barcelona began to improve the detection and redistribution of students in the 2018-2019 academic year in preschool 3 (previously P3) and 1st ESO (with reservation of places and economic backpack for these children), so it will complete all students in 2028-2029. It distributes students surgically, not only in the centers in an area, regardless of whether they are public or private, but also in each classroom in the center. This prevents them from concentrating on a class group at the center. Municipal policies have simultaneously included specific programs to retain families from that neighborhood, so that they do not leave for others.
In this sense, the Consorci considers that the commitment of the subsidized centers (which represent 60% of the city) in the fight against segregation has been essential. This has meant increasing the reservation of places in school pre-registration and during the course, considering that some 10,000 school-age minors arrive in the city.
The closure, over these five years, of very segregated centers whose students have been distributed in other centers has also helped.
In the rest of Catalonia this process of rebalancing demand began later, with the implementation of the pact against segregation promoted by the Ombudsman two years ago. Therefore, equitable distribution at all levels will not be completed until the 2031-2032 academic year. According to the Jaume Bofill Foundation, in Catalonia there is a segregation of 17%, almost double that of Barcelona (9%) with a level of balanced centers of 67%, twenty points below the capital.
