The Chartered School of Catalonia, which enrolls three out of ten Catalan students, has set its sights on combating the “misinformation”, the “prejudices”, the “stereotypes” and the “attacks” it has received in recent years in what the defense of exclusive public education has intensified, on the part of a sector of trade unions, political forces, families and administration. And in a context of demographic reduction, funding below the cost of the place and the weakening of some social initiative schools that end up passing into the hands of the administration.
The four chartered school boards (Agrupació Escolar Catalana, Catalana Federació de Centers d’Ensenyament, Fundació Escola Cristiana de Catalunya and Confederació de Centers Tònomos d’Ensenyament de Catalunya) came out yesterday to defend that, according to the Education Law of Catalonia, are part of the education system, which were born from social initiatives, driven by teachers or families, to respond to excluded groups or encourage new pedagogical projects, based on music, art, sport or technology That they are not motivated by the desire for profit, that they are spread throughout the Catalan territory, including small towns, and in their courtyards there is as much diversity as in the locality. And that they are committed to fairness and excellence.
“This is a message that does not reach society”, said the general secretary of the Fundació Escola Cristiana de Catalunya, Meritxell Ruiz, who elaborated on all these points. “It’s time to break stereotypes”, said the former councillor.
Charter schools represent 30% of the sector and group 687 schools, with 300,000 students. According to official statistics, students in these centers show less school failure, less absenteeism and more learning.
Thus, students in these schools have a dropout rate of 10%, within the EU recommendation and 7 points below the Catalan schools as a whole. Absenteeism is residual.
Employers also highlighted the results of the latest basic skills report, which place their students “above average” in Spanish, Catalan, English and mathematics. Eva Salvà, director general of the Agrupació Escolar Catalana, pointed out that only 7% of students from charter schools do not pass the basic skills, a figure in line with European recommendations (the target is less than 10%) . On the other hand, the average of the low range in Catalonia (public and concerted) is 15% in the majority of skills assessed. In mathematics, there are twice as many students in public schools who do not reach the established average as in charter schools.
The difference in results cannot be attributed, according to employers, not to a lack of quality in the public school but to different working conditions. The increase in school hours (there is one more hour in the concerted than in the public), stable teaching staff, training plans linked to the needs of the center, and “personalized” support for the student with tutorials, extracurriculars, and family reconciliation aid. And coordination with families. In addition, they claim to have greater agility to adapt to new needs (online education in a pandemic or monitors for September afternoons).
This explains, according to Salvà, that learning is not so linked to socio-economic reality, as is usually believed, but to ownership. The centers of maximum complexity in an area, with the same type of students in the charter school as in the public school, have better results in the charter school, according to the Superior Evaluation Council.
Employers also showed, with Education data, that their schools educate 14.1% of vulnerable students due to their socio-economic, physical or mental condition. This percentage has increased by two points compared to the previous year and is close to 14.6% of the public sector.
“We have not explained ourselves well enough and sometimes the political decisions end up not favoring us”, concluded Ruiz.
