Number of students to rise by 2.5 percent

A demand for 12'000 infant places is also expected. These are the Balearic Ministry of Education's initial predictions for the 2007-2008 school year, which were revealed by the director general of Education Planning and Centres, Rafael Bosch, when he announced the approval of the new decree for admission of pupils into state schools, which was approved last Friday. He was accompanied by the Balearic Minister for Education, Francesc Fiol.

The new decree, explained Bosch, “is the second in this term of office, because it was necessary to bring matters into line with the Education Law”. It is for this reason that two new requirements have been introduced with this decree.

The first is that families seeking a school place should declare their annual family income, without dividing it between the number of members of the family, instead of the income per head of the family, as laid down by the old Education Law.

The Education Law also says that information on the family's tax affairs should be obtained directly from the Tax Office, which saves the families some work. This was introduced by the Balearic Ministry of Education in 2005. In addition to this, it has now become a fundamental criteria that the pupil has a parent or tutor working at the centre, and gives them the right to four to seven points if it is the parents who work at the school. Until now this was a complementary point.

The area and whether the applicant has brothers or sisters in the centre will still be priority criteria. The allocation process, said the director general, will start on April 17 with the assignment of primary and secondary schools, and from April 23 the process to apply for places in Infant and Primary schools will be opened.

Fiol, for his part, said that a new Infant School in Mahon would be opened for the next school year, along with seven Infant and Primary schools, situated in Sa Pobla, Muro, Inca, Marratxi, Costitx, Santanyi, and Ibiza. A total of 3'195 pupils are in their fourth year of secondary education and will be able to start the first level of the Bachillerato (school certificate) next school year.

The decree which regulates the places for secondary education which goes beyond the obligatory number of years (the Bachillerato or professional training), will be applied progressively from the start of the next academic year. Places can be applied for between April 16 and 20 in the centres authorised to give these courses. Nevertheless, said Fiol, in the future there will be other education centres which will be authorised to offer this level of education.

At the moment there are only 16 state schools on the islands which give the Bachillerato course.