In Spain there are three types of education:
- Public: Fully paid by the State, that is, free for school.
- Concerted: Subsidized in part by the state, so the fee to be paid by the school is very affordable.
- Private: Cost to the school.
Both in public schools and in the Concerted governing similar schooling criteria, among which tend to highlight the proximity of the family residence, the presence of siblings, income level and other circumstances.
To view the closest to their residence public schools, visit the website of the Ministry of Education and Science http://centros.mec.es/centros and the web: http://www20.gencat.cat/portal/site/ensenyament/ if you are in Catalonia.
Concerted schools are private schools that hold a concert with the Administration that pays its teachers and subsidizes operations. They have to stick to the same legislation, calendars, programs and organization of public and theoretically subsidized stages which are compulsory to be free. In practice, they usually have some monthly fees related to complementary activities, extracurricular classes or other items. They follow an ideology center, usually religious, as most are Catholic schools, although there are no religious affiliation and their own educational definition. Apart from this feature of ideology, arranged purely private share another characteristic: the requirement of uniform is very common, the facilities are usually good and varied extra-curricular programs.
Private schools receive no state subsidy, therefore the biggest difference regarding the agreements is its price: if the agreements are usually paid around 100 € per month, private can cost more than 1,000 € per month, although most are paid around € 300-400 / month. These centers have freedom of organization and functioning: registration, calendars, schedules, teachers ... And usually put particular emphasis on some facet of education: languages, religious education, gender differentiated education, new technologies, etc. There are some listings that claim to rank private schools that can be visited on the website http://www.mejorescolegios.es/los-cien-mejores-colegios-de-espana-segun-el-periodico-el-mundo/.
