The Spanish Education System

Spain is divided by Authonomous Communities and Authonomous Cities (which are Gibraltar, Ceuta and Melilla). Every single territory considered as Authonomous Community or City has their right to manage the education system, but not everything. They decide about the school calendar and they provide equipment to the schools. But the major decisions, like what the kids learn, what subjects there are, the timetable of schools during the school year and the money comes from the Spanish Government (the Ministry of Education and Sport).

There are also 3 types of schools: Escuelas Públicas - Public Schools (all their money comes from the authonomous community or the Spanish Goverment); Escuelas Concertadas - Concerted Schools (which their money comes from private funds as the parents and also get money from public institutions) and the Escuelas Privadas - Private Schools (whose money is exclusively from private funds).

The logo of the Ministry of Education and Sport

* Kindergarten / Guardería

The Kindergarten is not a compulsory part of the Spanish Education System. That's means it's usually managed by the municipal corporation or by private enterprises that offers their services in exchange of paying them for their job. There are also kindergartens managed by consortiums, which have some agreedments with town halls or authonomous governments (even the Spanish Government) to have funds from them.

* Early Childhood Education / Educación Infantil

The Early Childhood education is for kids between 3 and 6 years old. It's not compulsory step on the Education System, but it's highly recommended as the objective is hel the small kids to get better physical, afective, social and intelectual skills. It's free on public schools.

* Primary Education / Educación Infantil

The Primary Education is for kids between 6 and 12 years old. There are 6 levels on this period, which are 1º de Primaria, 2º de Primaria... and so on until 6º de Primaria. It's compulsory and some authonomous communities give the textbooks free. This period is also free in Public Schools, but not in Private or Concerted Schools. Kids learn Geography, Art, Spanish, English, French, Maths and Biology. They also do P.E. Other subjects can be added by the authonomous communities (like Religion or Ethic Values).

* Secondary Education / Educación Secundaria Obligatoria (ESO)

Secundaria or Educación Secundaria (E.S.O.), consists of four years, structured as two cycles, from seventh to tenth grade: the First Cycle: 1st and 2nd year ('core academic subjects' + basic social science) and the Second Cycle: 3rd and 4th year ('core' academic subjects + liberal studies + optional courses which relate to the specific ambitions of the student)

* Post-16 Education

Spanish Baccalaureate or Bachillerato consists of two optional additional final years in high school (mandatory education is until students are 16 years old), required if the student wants to attend University. Once students have finished Bachillerato, they can take their University Entrance Exam, Pruebas de Acceso a la Universidad (PAU), popularly called Selectividad. La Selectividad is composed of two parts: the "general" section, which is mandatory for everyone, and the "specific" section, which consists of focus topics based on the students' academic interests and is theoretically optional. La Selectividad or A Levels exams is scored out of 10 points and students grade average and this score is then used to calculate students overall grade point average. In fact, 60% of this overall score is composed based on the students' GPA in Bachillerato and 40% of the score is based on the Selectividad grade.