Falling birth rates, the new challenge for nursery schools

ursery schools around Malaga province were back in action this week, providing early childhood education to babies and toddlers aged up to three. The 435 centres (both public and private) start the school year with the challenge of the falling birth rate diminishing numbers. They hope that when education at that level becomes free, as the Andalusian government plans, this will help to increase the enrolment rate, which last year reached 56% of the population in this age group.

The province starts the new school year with 4,798 places still unfilled in the early childhood education system, 29% of the total 16,459 places available. A new period for applying for a subsidised place at this level of education has been opened.

Of the 435 nursery schools in the province, 105 are public (regional and local government-run) and 330 are private. Of these private centres, 273 form part of the regional government’s subsidy scheme to help families pay for the childcare provided.

The centres that provide early childhood education for the 0-3 age group are open from Monday to Friday all year round except for the month of August and public holidays, from 7.30am to 5pm.

The regional government in Andalucía has recently signed an agreement with schools, emploers and unions to work progressively towards making this stage free of charge from the 2025/26 academic year.

The sector is confident that with this stage of education being totally free, the schools will fill their empty places as more families have the opportunity to enrol their babies and toddlers.

Ana Alcántara is the owner of Los Picapiedras nursery school, open since 1982 in Malaga city. She says that the falling birth rate “is a serious problem”, although in her case she is not noticing it as much as other less established schools.

Meanwhile public infant (3-6) and primary (6-12) schools in the province of Malaga are preparing for their first day back this coming Tuesday 10 September and the secondary school term starts on 16 September.

Andalucía-wide there are more than 1,400,000 public-funded school places throughout the different education levels from age three up. Of these, around 80 per cent are in public-run schools and the rest are in private schools with subsidised places.

The region, especially the province of Malaga and the Costa del Sol, also has a wide choice of private schools following the Spanish, British, American, German Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish education systems, among others.