The richness of Catalonia's education system derives, in part, from the diversity and social contribution that the school gives to the people who, with 687 centers and more than 300,000 students - 114,000 in kindergarten and primary school and 110,000 in ESO – represents 30% of the total. The social initiative school is entrepreneurial, diverse and of high quality. A reality of which the country can be very proud. Implemented throughout the territory, it brings together unique and diverse projects, is an expert in managing challenges, works for family reconciliation and is the one that offers the most hours of teaching activity.
Many of our centers were born to offer education to groups that were excluded or to promote diverse pedagogical models rooted in the country. In other words, there were schools before universal education was assumed by the State, and there were schools rooted in the country when the education offered by the State was very contrary to what can be understood as the Catalan school. They are the schools of the social initiative, the school of the people who, happy with who we are, what we do and what we represent, want to vindicate ourselves in a positive way because, as we have said, we believe that the population as a whole also You can be proud of it and, above all, because several international organizations such as Unesco or the OECD indicate that the challenges of the future in education require the participation of the social initiative. That is why it is important to underline and keep in mind the social contribution that people's schools make to the education system in Catalonia.
Taking public data from the Department of Education and reports from the Ombudsman as a source, we will explain, in two blocks, some of the most relevant elements that explain why we are an entrepreneurial, diverse and quality school; that is, how we are and how we do things. Since we are a school established throughout the territory, we respond to the reality of the country. This is why we welcome more than 50 different nationalities – in the 21/22 academic year we welcomed 5,491 newly arrived students – and that we welcome 14.1% of students with specific educational support needs (NESE). So that those who do not know the details of our education system in depth can get a general idea of what this represents, the public school accommodates 14.6% with many more resources. This is how we are.
Regarding how we do things, we want to emphasize that we are the school that offers the most hours of teaching activity - the application of the sixth form throughout the compulsory stage means that our students study for an extra year -, that we have a stable staff and committed - 90% of the contracts are indefinite and constant training plans are offered and linked to the educational project of the centers - and that we work on family reconciliation, since we offer reception to students beyond school hours in the mornings and in the afternoons. At the same time, we offer personalized support, inside and outside school hours, to families and students.
All this effort, to which is added - as indicated in the Ombudsman's report - a lack of funding from the Government, means that we are an expert school in managing challenges (during covid, after 48 hours classes resumed online to guarantee the maintenance of teaching tasks, with very little loss of learning) and that we can offer good results: we are the school with above average basic skills results in Catalan, Spanish , English and mathematics, and we are the school with the lowest dropout rate, almost zero, with 90% of students continuing their studies.
This is the contribution that the Escola de la gent makes to the country. And we demand that it be valued. Because the School in Catalonia is all of us.
