The concerted school of Catalonia, which enrolls three out of every ten Catalan students, this morning expressed its willingness to combat the existing "disinformation" about the social initiative model, which "has received many attacks", despite being included in the Catalan Education Law and contribute to the educational system in terms of social commitment and quality in education. "This is a message that does not reach society," said the general secretary of the Fundació Escola Cristiana de Catalunya (FECC), Meritxell Ruiz, who stressed that these schools do not seek financial gain. "It's time to break stereotypes."
In an event called to present the advertising campaign L'escola de la gent, the four sector employers (Confederation of Autonomous Education Centers of Catalonia, the Catalan School Association, the Catalan Federation of Education Centers and the Fundació Escuela Cristiana de Catalunya ) that group 687 schools with 300,000 students, have highlighted that they enroll, in proportion, almost the same number of vulnerable students as the public sector, and obtain, in exchange, better academic results.
According to official statistics, the students in these centers show less school failure, less absenteeism and more learning compared to those in the system as a whole.
Thus, students from schools with an economic concert have a dropout rate of 10%, seven points below the group of Catalan schools, and in line with the objective set by the European Union for Spain.
"90% of students in the 4th year of ESO continue with post-compulsory baccalaureate or FP studies," said Ruiz, who also mentioned that absenteeism in subsidized schools is residual.
Regarding the quality of teaching, students from subsidized schools obtain results in line with European objectives, better than the average for Catalan students.
In the latest report on basic skills, the results were "above average" in Spanish, English and mathematics, said Eva Salvà, general director of the Catalan School Association. She added that students who have not been able to pass basic skills, which are in the low range, amount to 7%, a percentage that meets European recommendations (the EU target is less than 10%).
On the other hand, the average of the low range in Catalonia (public and subsidized) stands at 15% in most of the competencies evaluated, with the exception of mathematics that presented a sharp worsening and Catalan students ranked between 19 and 23 percent.
The difference in the results can be attributed, according to the employers, to the increase in school hours (one hour more than the public one), to stable teaching staff (90% of permanent contracts), training plans linked to the needs of the center, and "personalized" accompaniment to the student with tutorials, extracurricular and help for family reconciliation.
In this sense, they consider it key to reinforce "the relationship with the student", according to Ruíz, as well as the "coordination between the school and the family", as demonstrated with the afternoons in September (a reconciliation measure proposed by the Department of Education for to bring forward the start of the school year) and that was adopted by practically all the centers of the concerted one in front of half of the public.
In this way, according to Salvà, learning is not so linked to the socioeconomic reality as to the ownership of the center.
The concerted centers of maximum complexity that have the same type of students as the neighboring public centers have better results in basic skills, according to data from the Consell d'Avaluació.
"In our courtyards there is as much diversity as in the area" where the schools are located, he explained. Thus, according to the latest statistical data provided by the Ministry, the concerted school has enrolled 14.1% of vulnerable students due to their socioeconomic status, their cultural origin or their physical or mental vulnerability. It is what is called NESE students (with Educational Needs for Educational Support).
This proportion has increased two points compared to the previous year, thanks to a greater identification of NESE students by the Government and compliance with the pact against school segregation that was promoted by the Sindic de Greuges and signed by educational agents. In it, the subsidized schools assumed a larger quota of students in exchange for receiving an economic contribution that the subsidized schools consider still insufficient.
The percentage of vulnerable students in the public school network amounts to 14.6%.
"If they don't know us well, what transcends society is something else, many times due to ignorance, we have received many attacks," said Ruiz, who has defended "the union of social initiative" to "solve educational problems." "Many of our schools were born from the initiative of families or teachers who wanted to offer education to excluded groups or promote diverse pedagogical models rooted in the country," he added. And he has mentioned projects around foreign languages, sports, art or music.
"We have not explained ourselves well enough and sometimes political decisions end up not favoring us," he added.
For her part, the general director of the Catalan School Association has assured that the Catalan subsidized schools "have no profit motive". An optimal functioning of the educational system should be similar to the health system, in the opinion of the employers, in which the patient receives quality health care regardless of whether the center is public or subsidized.
