Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Andalusia, communities with fewer children enrolled in a foreign language
In an increasingly global world, knowing another language is an issue that seems essential. Knowing how to develop in a second language, especially English, is something without which fewer and fewer people can survive. Therefore, the teaching of this linguistic skill must start from the earliest ages so that when the person becomes an adult master this knowledge with complete ease.
In fact, the Spanish educational system is betting more and more on a bilingual model where Spanish and English go hand in hand in most of the subjects. However, there are certain autonomous communities where students are not enrolled in a foreign language. In fact, there are large differences between the territories of Spain as shown by the data of the Ministry of Education report for the 2014-15 academic year.
Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Andalusia where the foreign language is less important
Attending to the data offered by the Ministry of Education, In Spain, the average number of primary school students enrolled in a foreign language is located in the 81'9%. However, there are great differences at the territorial level since while there are communities where this figure exceeds 95%, other territories do not even reach 50%. It is the case of Balearics, where the number of students of this educational cycle enrolled in a foreign language is located in the 44'9%.
To this community, it follows Andalusia that has only one 66'6% of Primary students enrolled in a foreign language. This tail podium completes it Catalonia with 68'1%. The fourth and fifth place of this peculiar ranking is completed by País Vasco and Asturias with 76'5% and 77'3% respectively.
In the top of the table are Murcia, Castilla y León, Extremadura and Galicia, Communities that are well above the national average and that have a percentage of students enrolled in a foreign language higher than 95%. These data are the ones that have contributed to improve the national average that in the school year 2009-10 was in 67'9% and now in 2014-15 has grown to 81'9%.
The second language falls in Baccalaureate
On the contrary, the enrollment of a second language in Baccalaureate has decreased compared to other years as reflected in the 2014-15 course data that indicate that the number of students in this academic cycle enrolled in a second language is around 23% , whereas in previous courses this figure was almost 30% of Bachiller students.
Regarding the second preferred language by the students of Baccalaureate, the French is the one that prevails to other languages in this sense. A fact that is repeated in all the autonomous communities of Spain, whose students opt for this optional subject since they see in the Gallo language, a language closer to Spanish, much easier to learn.
Above the European average
Although the ideal would be that 100% of Primary students were enrolled in a second language, the truth is that the data of our country exceeds the European average. According to the 2013 Eurostat data, 77.1 percent of the students in this cycle of education in the EU. Number that is widely surpassed by 81.9% of Spanish students.
The Eurostat data also shows that Spain also exceeds the European average at the level of Primary students who are enrolled in two or more foreign languages. In our country the average is 5'8%, a figure that although it may seem low, is above 4.6 percent of the European Union average.
Damián Montero
