The month of August has two newscasts and September is the month of the return to school and the beginning of classes for many children of two and three years who begin child education, which will be until the year they turn six years.
I remember these days, five years ago, when my oldest son was about to enter, that when talking to several people I came to say something like "school will start, but we'll see, if the same goes wrong we get it out" and in more than Once, with him as well as the medium, we were close to doing so. The response of my interlocutors was something like "you can not do that or social services will go for you", and they said they put their hand in the fire that the school is mandatory. However they were wrong, Children are not required to go to school until they are six years old.
How is it not mandatory?
Well, that, you have no obligation as a father or mother to point your child to school for the fact that he is in the year he turns 3 years old. The service is offered, these preschool courses are offered, so that the children begin to know the dynamics of the school and begin to receive knowledge, but it is the parents who decide whether or not to target the child.
As we read on the website of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports:
Early Childhood Education is the educational stage that serves girls and boys from birth to six years of age in order to contribute to their physical, emotional, social and intellectual development. It is ordered in two cycles: the first includes up to three years; the second, which is free, ranges from three to six years old. Being voluntary, this second cycle has become widespread throughout Spain, so that currently almost 100% of children aged 3 to 6 attend school for free.
It is clear, it has voluntary natureWhat happens is that the vast majority of children sign up for school at that age.
Why do most children go?
If you volunteer, if it is not mandatory, if you could stay at home, why do parents already point them to school? Well, for several reasons. One of them is the possibility of choose a place at the school you want or like. You are going to see the schools, you ask a thousand questions to see which one best suits your educational philosophy, you are looking for one that does not fit you far away and then you choose it as the first option. It may be your turn, and another one that you don't like so much, or that you don't like at all. Come on, that by targeting it with 3 years nobody guarantees you will enter the school you like. Well, if you can not enter then, when you are 4, 5 or 6 years old it can be even more complicated than enter, because then you can only enroll it in case some child leaves and if you do not "compete" with other children who also Want to enter those ages.
Another reason is that if a child does not go to school, someone has to take care of him. If one of the parents is at home there is no problem, he can do it and the child will also learn many things, but this is not always possible. So everything is in a "well you have to go to school, because there is no one who can take care of you."
And another option is for parents to consider positive that the child goes to school so that learn things now and start interacting a little more with other children. From the Ministry they tell us that "Early schooling is considered a great achievement that will have a positive impact on the improvement of future school performance" and I have my doubts about it because in many countries children do not start school until they are 6 years old and do not seem to have less performance than our children, precisely. But hey, this is another topic.
And at six years old?
From six years yes there is mandatory, so let's go to the Ministry page again and read the following:
Primary education is mandatory and free. It comprises three cycles of two years each, in total, six academic courses, which will ordinarily be followed between six and twelve years of age. In general, students will be incorporated into the first year of Primary Education in the calendar year in which they turn six years old.
It's all said then, isn't it? In my personal case, they started at age three and are still in school because by helping them a little and talking with the teachers we finally got them happy. If I had not succeeded, had it not been so, we would have taken them out without any remorse for what was said: it is voluntary, and precisely because of its voluntary nature, as a father I always take it as a resource that is offered to parents and children that should be used in case it is beneficial to all, but not so much if it is a real problem for the child or family.
