General upper secondary education (ISCED 3) in Spain comprises the 4^th year of compulsory secondary education (ESO) and the two bachillerato years.

Types of institutions

As reflected in  article 108 of Organic Law 2/2006 on Education (LOE), as amended by Organic Law 3/2020 (LOMLOE), and applicable in this case, the network of schools providing bachillerato education consists on:

• institutions fully or partially supported by public funds:
  • public schools;
  • publicly-funded private schools;
• private schools, with exclusively private sources of funding.

Public schools, referred to as “institutos” (highschool) may also provide Cumpulsory Secondary Education studies (ESO) and vocational training. Private schools, whether publicly-funded or not, , may adopt any name, except those corresponding to public institutions or those which may be misleading, and they usually offer other types of education as well.

All State schools, regardless of ownership and source of funding, must meet a series of minimum requirements regarding the academic qualifications of teachers, pupil-teacher ratios, teaching and sports facilities, and the number of school places. These requirements are set out in title IV of Royal Decree 132/2010 and article 87.2 of the LOE regarding the numerical student-teacher ratio per unit.

In the 2022/23 academic year, the following institutions were registered in the whole of Spain as offering bachillerato studies:

• on-site: 4 721, of which 3 145 were public schools, 486 were publicly-funded private schools and 1 090 were private schools;
• distance learning: 188, being 187 of them public and 1 private.

Source: Statistics from the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports (MEFD) on the number of centres that provide each type of education.

The number of schools varies substantially from one Autonomous Community to another.

Geographical accessibility

It is the responsibility of the State to promote actions that allow for the choice of any educational option desired, regardless of the place of residence, as long as the established academic requirements are met.

Along that same line, the educational authorities, based on the principle of collaboration, must facilitate access both to education with a limited offer and to institutions in neighbouring areas for students who have no such educational offer in institutions close to or in their own autonomous community. This circumstance shall be taken into account in the student admission processes.

Furthermore and once again based on the principle of collaboration, the educational authorities must facilitate access to their facilities with educational value and the use of their resources by students and teachers from other autonomous communities.

At the same time, special attention must be paid to schools in islands and rural areas, considering the peculiarities of their educational environment and the need to encourage students from rural areas to remain in the education system beyond basic education. To this end, the specific nature of rural and island schools should be taken into account, providing them with the necessary means and organisational systems to meet their particular needs and guarantee equal opportunities. In those islands and rural areas where it is considered advisable, schooling can be provided in a municipality close to the student's place of residence in order to guarantee the quality of education.

In order to achieve all of the above, in those cases in which schooling is required in schools further away from the place of residence (due to the absence of closer institutions), the existence of residences (boarding schools) is available, which allows pupils to return home at weekends. This service is provided free of charge in these cases, together with transport and canteen services. Bachillerato, being part of post-compulsory education, is not free of charge. However, bachillerato studies are provided free of charge in public schools. In turn article 32.5 of the LOE, as amended by the LOMLOE, establishes that public administrations shall promote a progressive increase in the availability of public places in bachillerato, in its different modalities and itinieraries, and article 82.3 establishes that education administrations shall promote an increase in the enrolment of students from islands and rural areas in non-compulsory education.

Admission requirements and choice of school

Access to bachillerato studies is normally possible on possession of one of these qualifications or their academic equivalents:

• Compulsory Secondary Education certificate;
• any of the vocational training qualifications;
• any of the plastic arts and design diplomas;
• any of the diplomas in sports education.

The education authorities are responsible for regulating the admission of students to public and publicly-funded private schools. This regulation must ensure the following aspects:

• the right to education;
• equal access;
• freedom of choice of centre by the families or the person exercising legal guardianship.

This regulation must provide for the necessary measures to avoid segregation of pupils due to socio-economic or other reasons. In all cases, an adequate and balanced distribution of students with specific educational support needs among schools must be observed.

Only when there are not enough places to meet the demand do public schools and publicly-funded private schools apply a series of priority admission criteria, which are common and applicable throughout the country, without any of them being exclusive in nature. They are the following:

• having siblings enrolled in the school or parents or legal guardians working at the school;
• closeness of the school to the parents or legal guardians' home or to their workplace;
• per capita income of the family unit;
• legal status of large family, of pupils born from multiple births, or of single-parent family;
• student's family placement situation;
• disability of the pupil or of either of his/her parents or siblings;
• condition of gender violence or terrorism victim;
• the simultaneous monitoring of secondary education and formal music or dance education;
• the simultaneous monitoring of secondary education and high-performance sports programmes;
• each applicant’s academic record.

None of these criteria shall be exclusive and may not account for more than 30% of the total maximum score, except for the distance to the family home, which may exceed this limit.

Under no circumstances will there be discrimination on the grounds of birth, racial or ethnic origin, sex, religion, opinion, disability, age, illness, sexual orientation or gender identity or any other personal or social condition or circumstance.

Still, if there are not enough school places, the following are given priority in the school catchment area corresponding to either of the parents or legal guardians’ place of residence or employment:

• students coming from pre-primary schools that are attached;
• students whose schooling is caused by the change of residence of the family unit due to forced mobility of either parent, a disability of any of the family members, or as a result of acts of gender-based violence.

Admission is the responsibility of the education authorities of each autonomous community. To this end, they may constitute commissions or bodies of admission which guarantee and must establish the corresponding ways for the families to complain against the decisions taken in the said procedures.

• the School Board is in charge of admission in public schools, while in publicly-funded private schools the person in charge is the owner;
• private schools have autonomy for establishing their own admission procedures.

Age levels and grouping of pupils/students

Bachillerato is normally completed between the ages of sixteen and eighteen.

This stage comprises two academic years. Although groups are created according to the year of birth, there might be students with several years difference in age in the same group, as there might be students repeating the year. However, the ordinary distribution of students by age and academic year is as follows:

• first year of bachillerato: 16-17 years old (ISCED 3);
• second year of bachillerato: 17-18 years old (ISCED 3).

There is also the possibility of studying Bachillerato over three academic years in accordance with article 15 of Royal Decree 243/2022. In this sense, the educational administrations will provide the measures that make it possible for a student to complete their Bachillerato studies in three academic years, under the ordinary system, whenever their personal circumstances, either permanent or transitory, make it advisable to do so. In these cases, students may simultaneously enrol in subjects from both years of the Bachillerato programme. This option is available to those who are in any of the following circumstances:

• students who are simultaneously enrolled, during the stage, in the Professional Music or Dance Education programmes;
• students who accredit their status of high-level or high-performance athletes;
• students who require different educational attention to the ordinary one due to a specific need for educational support;
• students who claim other circumstances which, in the opinion of the corresponding educational administration and under the terms established by it, justify the application of this measure.

The education authorities shall determine, within their territorial scope, the distribution of the subjects comprising the Bachillerato studies, guaranteeing the appropriate planning of the subjects offered among which there is priority, in accordance with the provisions of Annex V.

With regard to repeating a year, students may repeat a maximum of three years in the whole stage until they reach the limit of four years spent in the ordinary regime of bachillerato studies.

A form teacher is assigned to each group, but specialist teachers are responsible for teaching the different subjects. These specialist teachers may have the same group of students during the following years.

With regard to the numerical teacher/student ratio per unit, the following aspects should be mentioned:

• it is regulated by the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports (MEFD), in Royal Decree 132/2010, which establishes a maximum of thirty-five students per classroom;
• the  educational authorities may authorise an increase of up to ten per cent in the maximum number of students per classroom in public and publicly-funded private schools in the same schooling area for various reasons:
  • address immediate schooling needs of late starters;
  • needs arising from the transfer of the family unit during an extraordinary schooling period, either due to forced mobility of either parent or legal guardian, or as a result of the initiation of a family placement measure for the person attending school.

Bachillerato is developed in different modalities, it is organised in a flexible way and, where appropriate, in different itineraries, so that it can offer students a specialised preparation in accordance with their educational prospects and interests or allow them to join the labour market once they have completed it.

Organisation of the school year

The educational authorities within their jurisdiction, are responsible for annually establishing the school year calendar.

Activity in schools starts on September 1st and ends at least on June 30th. For students the teaching activity begins during the month of September, and ends in June in the first year in Bachillerato and in May in the second year in Bachillerato, due to the university entrance exam. Students enrolled in Bachillerato may sit an extraordinary exam for the subjects they have not passed on the dates determined by the educational administration. In the case of the first year of Bachillerato, this extraordinary exam may be held during the month of June or during the first days of September in some autonomous communities. In the second year of Bachillerato, the extraordinary examination is held during the month of June, before the extraordinary university entrance examination is held. The exact dates are set by the educational authorities in each autonomous community. 

The teaching activity is organised taking into account the Christmas, Easter and summer holidays, giving rise to terms of varying length. However, some autonomous communities have also tried to divide the year in two-month periods.

School holidays for students are spread out over the whole year in the following manner:

• approximately eleven weeks of summer holidays;
• about fifteen days at Christmas;
• between eight and eleven days in late March or during the month of April, corresponding to Easter;
• between two and three days for Carnival, depending on each autonomous community.
• about twelve bank holidays established by the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports (MEFD) or the regional or local administrations.

This distribution of holidays, public holidays and non-school days can vary significantly from one autonomous community to another.

During the summer holidays, educational institutions may remain open until the end of July for administrative purposes. Depending on the organisation of each educational centre, the same may occur on non-holiday days during the Christmas and Easter breaks.

Organisation of the school day and week

Schools establish the weekly and daily timetable, respecting the minimum number of teaching days established by law and in the guidelines on school day set by each autonomous community.

The schoolgeneral timetable, in the School Development Plan, must specify the following aspects:

• school opening time and conditions;
• teaching hours;
• availability of school services and facilities out of school hours.

The weekly timetable  is organized from Monday to Friday, except holidays, according to the school calendar. In general, it comprises 30 to 32 lessons lasting 55-60 minutes each, i.e., 6 or 7 lessons daily lessons.

During the school day, there is a 30-40 minute break divided into two periods, usually either after every two or three lessons or as a single period by mid-morning.

The weekly and daily timetable, as proposed by the management team, must be approved by the School Council and ratified by the competent education authority. If it does not include the scheduled teaching activities, the relevant education authority returns it to the school so that it can be revised and corrected.

Beyond the daily school schedule, remedial courses and extracurricular activities related to educational subjects of interest are often offered: languages, ICT, sports, fine arts, reading and writing, directed study activities, etc. These services are available for families (upon payment, in most cases) and are voluntary for pupils.