Foreign pupil numbers rise eight times in 10 years
Expatica News
8 September 2006
MADRID The number of foreign pupils has gone up eight times in the past decade, the education ministry said on Friday.
They now represent 8.4 percent of all children in Spanish public and private schools.
In total there are about 600,000 foreign pupils.
Almost half come from South America, 20 percent from Africa and 27 percent from Europe, according to statistics released from the ministry.
More children of foreign parents are now going to public schools instead of private schools.
Five years ago, there were three foreign children in public schools for every one in a private school.
Now the ratio is four to one.
The highest number of foreign children were in the Balearic Islands, Madrid, La Rioja, Murcia and Catalonia.
In some of these regions, they represent 10 percent of the pupils in a school.
