Ministry of Education (Spain)

Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports
Ministerio de Educación, Formación Profesional y Deportes

Headquarters of the Ministry of Education
Agency overview
FormedMarch 31, 1900; 124 years ago (1900-03-31) (as Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine Arts)
November 22, 2023 (as Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports)
Preceding agency
TypeMinistry
JurisdictionGovernment of Spain
Headquarters36, Alcalá Street
Madrid, Spain
Employees8,532 (2019)[note 1][1]
Annual budget 6.4 billion, 2023[2]
Minister responsible
Agency executives
Child agencies
  • State School Council
  • Superior Council of Artistic Teaching
  • State Observatory for School Coexistence
WebsiteMinistry of Education (in Spanish)

The Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports (MEFPD) is the department of the Government of Spain responsible for proposing and carrying out the government policy on education and vocational training, including all the teachings of the education system except university education, without prejudice to the competences of the National Sports Council in matters of sports education. Likewise, it is also the responsibility of this Department the promotion of cooperation actions and, in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the promotion of international relations in the field of non-university education.[3]

The Education in Spain is established as a decentralized system in which the regions have powers over the basic and secondary education while the central government establishes the general basis of the system and it is responsible for the tertiary education.[4] Currently, the Education Ministry has no authority over universities because it is the responsibility of the Ministry of Universities. As of 2018, there are more than 550,000 school teachers and more than 7,000 university professors.[1]

The MEFP is headed by the Minister of Education, who is appointed by the King of Spain at request of the Prime Minister. The Minister is assisted by the Secretary of State for Education, the Secretary-General for Vocational Training (with the rank of Under-Secretary) and the Under-Secretary of the Ministry. In addition, in order to coordinate the education system it exists the Sectoral Conference on Education that is composed by the Education Minister and the Regional Ministers of Education.[5]

Since July 2021, the minister is Pilar Alegría, from the Spanish Socialist Workers Party.[6]


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  1. ^ a b Ministry of Territorial Policy and Civil Service (2019). Statistical Bulletin of the personnel at the service of the Public Administrations (PDF). pp. 32 and 48. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  2. ^ "2023 State Budget" (PDF). www.boe.es. January 1, 2023. Retrieved January 8, 2023.
  3. ^ "Royal Decree 1045/2018, of August 24, by which the basic organic structure of the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training is developed". boe.es. Retrieved April 22, 2019.
  4. ^ "Education in Spain". Expatica. Retrieved June 27, 2022.
  5. ^ "Composición y funcionamiento". www.educacionyfp.gob.es (in Spanish). Retrieved April 22, 2019.
  6. ^ Vera, Joaquín (June 8, 2018). "Los cinco retos de Isabel Celaá, la nueva ministra de Educación y FP". El Español (in Spanish). Retrieved April 5, 2019.