The private school has made a clamp with the public to denounce "lack of transparency" and "discrimination" in a kind of subsidized colleges with public funds that charge fees to families without making it clear that they have to be voluntary, as the law sends. They assure that the autonomous communities "close their eyes" before these concerted centers that pursue "profit" and are "hurting" the rest.
The Association of Private and Independent Schools (CICAE) and the Spanish Confederation of Party Associations of Students (CEAPA) have contracted the services of some consultants who have passed through parents who ask for information to enroll their child in the second Stage of infant The work, made public this Wednesday at a press conference, concludes that, of 338 concerted centers analyzed in seven autonomies, 87% charges a base quota that is mandatory in 77% of cases. Of these, 15% of the centers "exclude" students of activities when their parents do not pay.
These practices "contravene" the right to the gratuity of compulsory lessons sustained with public funds, warn. Since the organic law of the right to education (LODE) of 1985, complementary and extracurricular school activities will not be able to be lucrative, and money should be dedicated to maintenance and improvement of facilities. It is not illegal to charge for these services or donations but should be voluntary.
CICAE and CEAPA imply that many centers are not respecting the norm. They cite the case of a school in Barcelona, St. Paul, who come to charge 930 euros per month. Catalonia is the region of the seven investigated that charges higher quotas (202 euros monthly average), followed by the Community of Madrid (133 euros), the Basque Country (84 euros), the Valencian Community (78 euros), Andalusia ( 46 euros), Aragón (36 euros) and Galicia (32 euros).
There are also centers that do not charge a single euro and others who have many families who do not pay. Prices vary a lot and not all obey the same concept. The concerted school insists that complementary activities and services offered have "voluntary and nonprofit character". "The way in which their prices are set, since the approval of the School School Board, the request to the Educational Administration and the authorization of the Ministry of Education", indicate the associations of families of the Copapa. They claim that the inspection oversees its activities and does not consist that none of its schools has been sanctioned.
CICAE and CEAPA acknowledge that there is no irregularity if the centers ask for a donation or contribution, warning previously that it is voluntary. But they add that "the trap" is that some centers include the charges of the fees within the concept of "complementary activities" that are performed obligatorily during school hours. For example, theater workshops, robotics, English, math reinforcement ... The Celaá law has expressly banned that this is done: complementary activities should be carried out outside the teaching hours. The study cites the case of two centers in Madrid where parents have been supposed to be told that, if they do not pay, "the students would come later or would go before" (the Vallmont) or "would not participate in that activity (if they eat At home they would be collected before and if they eat at school it would be treated during that time) "(the Miro Valley). And even produces "an index of pressure to collection", where "the CCAA where families are further pressured are Basque Country and Catalonia."
"An important part of concerted colleges becomes elevated amounts to families and, above all, by compulsory lessons, is breach of the concert and many are perhaps wearing the connivance of the administration. Families find that not They give them the price sheet and have to go several times to school to ask them. It is not a transparent process, "says Elena Cid, General Director of CICAE, which admits, however, that these bad practices do not make them the bulk of the "Concerted traditional", which "has a social function and serves populations with great difficulties."
Date Of Update: 08 October 2021, 09:58
