Education in Spain

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Education in Spain

Ministry of Education
Minister	Pilar Alegría
General details
Primary languages	Spanish alongside co-official languages within respective regions, including Catalan, Basque and Galician
System type	Democratic Constituchy (check for accuracy)
Literacy (2018 literacy rank =)
Total	98.44
Male	98.93
Female	97.97
Enrollment
Total	9,909,886
Primary	4,654,727
Secondary	2,730,036
Post secondary	1,633,358 (only accounts for University Students )
Attainment
Secondary diploma	80%
Post-secondary diploma	41%

Education in Spain is compulsory and free for all children aged between 6 and 16 years and is supported by the national government together with the governments of each of the country's 17 autonomous communities.

In Spain, primary school and secondary school are considered basic (obligatory) education. These are Primaria (6–12 years old), which is the Spanish equivalent of elementary school and the first year of middle school, and Secundaria (12–16 years old), which would be a mixture of the last two years of middle school and the first two years of high school in the United States.

As of 2020–21, Spain has 9,909,886 students. The largest group corresponds to primary education, with 4,654,727 students followed by secondary education with 2,730,036 and university students with 1,633,358. The smallest group is those in vocational education, with 887,710 students.^[1]

The Spanish education system is regulated by the Ley Orgánica 8/2013, de 9 de diciembre, para la mejora de la calidad educativa (LOMCE, Organic Law for the improvement of educational quality) that expands upon Article 27 of the Spanish Constitution of 1978.^[2]

Spain is working towards reforming vocational education and modernizing education to halt and reverse the rising unemployment rates.^[3][4] As of April 2024, the youth unemployment in Spain stands at 26.5%. By gender, male youth unemployment is at 27.4%, while female youth unemployment is at 25.3%.^[5]