The keys to the new school year

Early start

One of the new measures that has captured most headlines due to the effects it has on teachers, pupils and families is the bringing forward of the school calendar to September 5 for infant and primary education, and to September 7 for secondary schools. Gonzàlez-Cambray believes that this change favours pupils, especially the most vulnerable, “because it shortens the long summer break” and helps the family work life balance. In order to cover the afternoons of September, the secretary ensured that 100% of publically-funded schools already have some 1,683 contracts in place to hire school monitors. He also stated that with the aim of a smooth transition to this timetable change, “the appointment of new teachers had been moved forward, with 43,302 teachers appointed by the end of June, one month earlier than usual,” while also committing to “evaluating progress” in the new year, “in order to “make the best decisions for the following year”.

One hour less

This was one of the red lines for the unions. From January 1, 2023, teachers will teach one hour less per week in both primary and secondary schools, with the measure starting mid-term. “The workers’ representatives have always told us, from day one, that their main aim is to reduce the teaching hours in both primary and secondary schools,” the secretary explained. “We always do what we say we will do in this department. And as soon as we were able to, and there was the budget for it, we made the proposal to the unions to reduce the teaching hours from January 1.” This hour reduction must be dedicated “to coordination, pedagogical debates and responding to the new projects required by the Catalan education system”. The measure will cost 170 million euros and will require the hiring of 3,472 new teachers. There will be 1,463 new teachers in primary at a cost of 67 million euros, and 2,009 teachers in secondary schools at a cost of 103 million euros. “It is a good measure because it will increase the quality of the education system,” the secretary stressed.

Fewer students in class

This year “there will be fewer students, more groups and more teachers.” The reduction in ratios begins in classes of 3 to 6 year-olds (P3): “We will go from 25 to 20 students in all schools where it can be done.” According to the department, almost 90% of publically-funded schools and 30% of private subsidised schools will apply the measure. The reduction will be maintained in successive years until the entire primary stage is completed.

Infants free

It is the first year in which the 2nd year of infant education will be free in public nursery schools, and there will also be subsidies for families who send their children to private schools. The department will fund municipal nurseries to the tune of 1,600 euros each, while families with children in private nurseries will get 800 euros per child per year, rising to 1,600 euros for children from vulnerable families. The number of rural nursery schools will also double: 52 municipalities will get a nursery school for the first time.

New curriculums

2022/23 will be the year that new curriculums are introduced, although they are still in the final phase of processing and had not yet been approved by the time the new school year started. The Secretary for Educational Transformation, Núria Mora, recently stressed that schools already have the draft curriculum to work work, and she is confident that these will not change much with respect to the final versions. “The new curriculum – which comes from the Spanish state law on education – states that enforcement is to begin with core courses this year. For the first time it is a curriculum we have participated in designing, which makes us proud. Catalonia is the only region that has participated in designing the curriculum in terms of everything that has to happen in a classroom,” Mora explained. Schools have a lot of freedom over how they apply the new curriculum.

Admission decree

This will be the first year that the so-called admission decree is implemented, which provides for “a balanced distribution of pupils”. For the first time, places for pupils with specific educational needs are reserved until school starts, “which facilitates an equitable distribution of places for the more vulnerable.” Catalan Education Secretary Josep Gonzàlez-Cambray explained that pupils will start nursery, primary and secondary school, “with all the necessary economic resources associated with their schooling”: publically-funded schools will receive 384 euros per student, and subsidised private schools, 988.

Inclusive schooling

“We want to start a change of direction towards more inclusive schooling; we need to improve.” Gonzàlez-Cambray announced that there will be an external assessment on the status of the rollout of the new inclusive school decree, and that the results of the evaluation will be available later this year. “One in five students has specific educational needs, so we need to be able to allocate resources to them.”

Vocational training

“This is and will be the term of vocational training (VT); we must give it a new impetus so that VT responds to the needs of the labour market,” Gonzalez-Cambray said. The challenges are to increase places and improve the pre-registration and enrolment procedures. Regarding deadlines, he stated that “the procedures to carry out the entire process will be improved before the start of the academic year”.

Climate emergency

The education department has sent new instructions to all schools for dealing with heat waves, and assured them that a climate emergency plan will also be drawn up to address heating in schools and allow them to progressively adapt to the new climate situation.