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Diari Catalunya

Girona combined schools deem mandatory three afternoon classes "unfeasible"

The new proposal by the Department of Education raises concerns over lack of space, especially in cafeterias, and the risk of losing students.

Imatge genèrica d'un menjador escolar amb taules i cadires buides, simbolitzant la manca d'espai.

Imatge genèrica d'un menjador escolar amb taules i cadires buides, simbolitzant la manca d'espai.

The Department of Education has proposed making three weekly afternoon classes mandatory in secondary education, a measure that combined primary/secondary schools in the Girona region consider unviable due to logistical and dining hall capacity issues.

The new draft calendar order from the Department of Education and Vocational Training (FP), which seeks to provide stability by setting September 8 as the start date for the next three years, has generated strong rejection among combined primary/secondary schools (instituts escola) in the Girona region. The measure obliges secondary students to have “a maximum of two weekly afternoons without teaching activities,” implying the mandatory implementation of three afternoon sessions. This obligation only affects 25 of the 121 centers in Catalonia that currently run fewer than three afternoons.
The main concern of the affected centers, such as the Institut Escola Salvador Vilarassa in Besalú or the Francesc Cambó i Batlle in Verges, is the lack of infrastructure, especially dining hall space. Many of these centers obtained exceptions in the past due to their limitations, as the proposed schedule requires secondary students to eat lunch at the school.
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"The Department granted us permission not to hold afternoon classes because we have a very small dining hall pending expansion, where there is only room for primary students, and they told us they would extend the measure until we have a new dining hall."

Pep Invernó · Director of the Institut Escola Salvador Vilarassa in Besalú
This situation creates fear of losing enrollment, as families might opt for traditional high schools that maintain the intensive schedule. The director of Besalú, Pep Invernó, regrets that the comparative disadvantage with public high schools that can maintain five free afternoons is significant, in addition to the loss of volunteer projects that ESO students currently carry out in the afternoons.
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"We are happy because the schedule is healthier and more stable for students who are in a growth stage; three days a week students eat lunch at one o'clock and the others at two."

Sílvia Ferrer · Head of Studies at Institut Escola Greda in Olot
Although centers like the Institut Escola Greda in Olot, which has implemented the three afternoon classes since 2020, defend the model for being healthier and improving the quality of learning, they also acknowledge that implementing five afternoons (the full primary schedule) would be “tremendously complicated in terms of space” and would create insurmountable logistical problems.
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