The Regional Minister for Educational Development and Vocational Training, Patricia del Pozo, has highlighted that the Andalusian education system has a total of 1,022 more public units than in 2018, in a period marked by a drop in the birth rate. He also reported that public schools have more teachers than ever before. Thus, in 2018 the staff was made up of 101,357 and this academic year by 108,499, i.e. 7,000 more teachers and teachers with about 70,000 fewer students in Infant and Primary in the last four years. For next year the forecast is for a further decrease of just over 17,000 students.
These figures have meant that «we have the lowest average ratios in history in the first stages, below 20 students in Pre-school (19.42) and below 21 (20.39) in Primary Education,» said Del Pozo. In this sense, she pointed out that the Andalusian ratio is below similar communities such as Madrid or Catalonia and in line with the average of EU countries and below Portugal or France.
During her speech, the Regional Minister explained that the schooling procedure has just begun and lasts for months and, therefore, the number of units is being adjusted throughout the process. «At the moment we still don’t know how the centres will be definitively configured», she pointed out.
Patricia del Pozo also said that for the next academic year 2023/24, the Regional Ministry has offered a total of 1,434,442 publicly-funded places for Infant Education (second cycle), Primary, Special Education, Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO) and Baccalaureate. For 3-year-old students, who are entering the education system for the first time, 91,150 new places are available, 2,025 more than this academic year. This increase in the number of places for three-year-olds, in a context of a falling birth rate, aims to encourage families to choose the school of their choice.