How the Spanish school system works: year groups by birth year, subjects, grades and five coastal regions

In Spain a child's year group is set by the year of birth, not the birthday: everyone born in 2020 starts primary school in September 2026. School is compulsory for ten years, from 6 to 16, and free at public and concertado schools. The state fixes the stages and the core of the subjects. The region sets the calendar, the admission points and, in Valencia and the Balearics, a second language of teaching.

Which year group by year of birth

Primary school starts in the calendar year a child turns six. The cut-off is therefore 31 December, so a January child and a December child of the same year share a class, almost a year apart in age.

From there it is one year at a time: six years of primary (Primaria), four of compulsory secondary (ESO), then two of Bachillerato, the academic track to university, or a vocational cycle (FP). Primaria, ESO and the basic vocational cycle together make up basic education. It is compulsory and free, and a pupil may stay in it until 18.

Sources: LOE, art. 4; RD 157/2022, art. 5.2; RD 217/2022, art. 5.

Before six there is Infantil, in two cycles: 0 to 3 and 3 to 6. It is voluntary. In 2025/26, 50.2% of children aged 0 to 2 were enrolled in it, and 76.4% of two-year-olds.

The law's «free» is narrower than people assume. It names basic education, the second cycle of Infantil and the basic vocational cycle. For Bachillerato the law only promises more public places, and a concertado school may charge a fee for it, capped by the state budget.

Sources: LOE, arts. 12, 15, 32, 116–117; Ministry of Education, 2025/26.

What is taught

The state writes the minimum: 60% of school hours where there is one official language, 50% where there are two. The region writes the rest, so weekly timetables are regional.

Primary pupils take the same six areas every year: the natural and social world, arts, physical education, Spanish language and literature (plus the regional language where there is one), a foreign language and maths. In one of the last two years a seventh is added, civic and ethical values; the law lists «the social value of taxes» among its topics. At the state minimum Spanish is the largest area, with 280 hours per two-year cycle against 180–185 for maths.

The first three years of ESO add biology and geology, physics and chemistry, geography and history, music or visual arts, and at least one year of technology. In the fourth year five common subjects remain, with a choice between two maths courses, plus three electives out of ten — among them Latin, economics, a second foreign language and technology.

Bachillerato has four tracks: arts, sciences, humanities and social sciences, and a general one.

Every school must offer religion, and the family chooses at the start of the year. In Primaria and ESO, pupils who opt out get «educational attention»: supervised project work that may not cover any other subject's syllabus. The religion mark never counts in the averages used for places, grants or university entry.

Sources: LOE, arts. 6.4, 18–19; RD 157/2022, art. 8, annex IV; RD 217/2022, arts. 8–9; RD 243/2022, arts. 8–9.

Sources: Andalucía; Murcia; Valencia region; Balearic Islands; Canary Islands.

That is the first year of ESO, in periods out of 30 a week. Spanish gets four where it is the only language (Andalucía, Murcia and the Canaries) and three in the Valencia region and in the Balearics, where the regional language takes another three. Maths is four everywhere. English is four everywhere except the Balearics, with three. A second foreign language is compulsory in the first year of ESO everywhere except the Valencia region and the Balearics, where it is an option.

Marks, repeating a year and the university score

Primaria and ESO report in words: insuficiente is a fail, then suficiente, bien, notable and sobresaliente. Bachillerato switches to whole numbers from 0 to 10, with 5 to pass.

Repeating a year is meant to be rare. In Primaria a pupil can stay back only once in six years; in ESO once per year group and twice at most in all of compulsory school. ESO pupils move up with one or two failed subjects and a plan to catch up. The ESO certificate carries no grade at all. All pupils sit a diagnostic test in the fourth year of Primaria and the second of ESO, but it decides nothing: the law calls it informative.

Sources: RD 157/2022, arts. 15, 26; RD 217/2022, arts. 16–17, 31; RD 243/2022, art. 30; LOE, arts. 21, 29.

University entry runs through «la prueba de acceso a la universidad» — the decree's name; PAU, EBAU and EvAU are regional names. It is held twice a year. It has four written exercises of 90 minutes, five in regions with a second official language: Spanish, history of Spain or of philosophy, a foreign language and the main subject of the pupil's track. Each is marked to two decimals, and the test average must reach 4 to count.

The access score is 60% of the Bachillerato average plus 40% of the test, and 5 is a pass. A pupil with a 7 average and a 6 in the test gets 6.6. The score never expires. For popular degrees universities add weighted marks from up to three more subjects.

Pupils from an EU school system, or from a country with a reciprocity agreement, who meet their own system's university entry requirements do not sit the test. Neither do holders of the European Baccalaureate or the IBIBThe International Baccalaureate — an international school programme whose diploma universities worldwide accept.Why it matters. If the child may move country again, the IB avoids having to validate the school certificate. A Spanish bachillerato has to be homologated. diploma. Holders of the higher vocational title, Técnico Superior, enter without it as well.

Sources: RD 534/2024, arts. 5–6, 12–16, 22.

Public, concertado and private

Spain has three kinds of school, not two. Public schools belong to the state. Concertado schools are private but paid from public funds to teach for free; the administration pays their teachers directly. Private schools without such an agreement set their own fees.

Neither a public nor a concertado school may charge a family for free teaching, demand a donation to a foundation or impose a «compulsory» paid service. After-school activities and school services are voluntary by law.

Sources: school types, 2024/25; foreign pupils, 2025/26; LOE, arts. 88, 108, 117.

Among the five coastal regions the public share runs from 64.3% in the Balearics to 77.1% in the Canaries. Private schools without public money matter most after 16: they teach 17.6% of Bachillerato pupils and just 4% of primary pupils.

How places are shared out

Families apply in spring for September, listing schools in order of preference. When a school has more applicants than places, the law sets three main criteria: a sibling already there, how close the family lives or works, and family income per head. None may weigh more than 30% of the top score except proximity. Ranking by origin, religion or any other personal trait is banned. A bilingual programme may not set a language test at entry.

Sources: LOE, arts. 84–87, 157; Andalucía; Murcia; Valencia region; Balearic Islands; Canary Islands.

A first sibling at the school brings 15 points in the Valencia region and 8 in the Balearics and in the Canaries. A home in the school's area brings 14 in Andalucía and 5 in Murcia. The 2026/27 windows have closed.

A family arriving after spring is not shut out. The law guarantees schooling at compulsory ages to pupils who join late from another country — a place in the system, not at a chosen school — and lets the region exceed the class cap by up to 10% for them. The caps are 25 pupils a class in Primaria and 30 in ESO; the average in 2025/26 was 20.3 and 24.3.

Sources: LOE, arts. 78, 87.2, 157; class sizes, 2025/26.

Arriving from another school system

The foreigners' act gives foreign children under 16 both the right and the duty to be schooled, on the same terms as Spanish children. Its wording sets no residence condition; that is a reading of the text, not of case law. When renewing a residence permit, a foreign resident with children of compulsory school age must show that they are enrolled.

No recognition paperwork is needed to join any year of Primaria or ESO: the school places the pupil by age itself. Pupils short of Spanish get extra lessons alongside their ordinary class, never instead of it.

Paperwork starts at 16. Bachillerato requires the ESO certificate, so foreign studies are homologated — declared equal to it — on the evidence of the last four school years. Joining the second year of Bachillerato directly needs the first one validated. The Ministry has three months once the file is complete, and silence counts as a refusal. Applications are open all year, and homologation to the ESO certificate carries no fee. While the file is pending, the stamped application lets a school enrol the pupil conditionally.

Documents from the EU, the European Economic Area and Switzerland need no legalisation; Hague Convention countries need an apostille, and the rest need consular legalisation. All need an official translation into Spanish.

Sources: LO 4/2000, art. 9; Orden of 14.03.1988; Ministry FAQ; homologation procedure.

Five coastal regions: calendar and language

Spain has no national school calendar, only a floor of 175 teaching days. In Andalucía dates are set by province: Málaga teaches until 24 June and Cádiz until the 23rd; Málaga's Christmas break runs to 6 January and Cádiz's to the 8th, and only Málaga has a «white week» off in late February.

Sources: Málaga; Cádiz; Murcia; Valencia region; Balearic Islands; Canary Islands.

Murcia starts first, on 8 September. The Easter break runs from 5 days (Canary Islands) to 12 (Valencia region). The last day shown is for Primaria; the final Bachillerato year ends in May.

Sources: Andalucía; Murcia; Valencia region; Balearic Islands; Canary Islands.

In the Valencia region the answer depends on the town. A 1983 law splits municipalities into Valencian-speaking and Spanish-speaking ones, and the 2024 school law builds on that split. Alicante, Benidorm and Valencia itself are on the Valencian list; Torrevieja and Orihuela are on the Spanish one.

In Torrevieja reading and writing are taught in Spanish, the default base language; a class with Valencian as the base opens where enough families ask. Valencian is still a compulsory subject, with 12% of teaching time in Primaria and 10% in ESO, and residents may ask for exemption from its marks with no time limit. In Alicante parents choose Valencian or Spanish as the base language, and each school splits its classes by those choices. A pupil arriving from abroad may be exempt from Valencian marks in the year of arrival and the next, but still attends the lessons.

In the Balearics Catalan is the language of teaching for at least half of school time, and in Primaria Catalan and Spanish get equal hours. Exemption from Catalan marks is narrow — mainly for families staying three years or less in all — and the subject is still taken. Andalucía, Murcia and the Canaries teach in Spanish only, but each has subjects of its own: Andalusian schools must offer «culture of flamenco» in the third year of ESO, and every Canarian pupil has a weekly lesson of island history and geography in the same year.

Sources: Ley 4/1983, arts. 35–36; Ley 1/2024, art. 14 and annex II; Balearic Ley 1/2022, art. 135.

The last column counts international schools we checked against accreditation registers and the schools' own sites: the choice outside the state system.

Further

Where there is a choice of school in English, German or French is in our piece on international schools. The school's area is counted from the home address, so the school decides the flat too — long lets are in our piece on renting long-term. What a family month costs on the Canaries is in our piece on the cost of living in the Canaries.

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