Spain

B

Political Divisions

Spain comprises 50 provinces in 17 autonomous regions: Andalusia, Aragón, Asturias, Balearic Islands, Basque Country (País Vasco), Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Castile-León, Catalonia, Extremadura, Galicia, La Rioja, Madrid, Murcia, Navarra, and Valencia.

C

Principal Cities

The capital and largest city is Madrid (population, 2007, 3,132,463), also the capital of Madrid autonomous region; the second-largest city, chief port, and commercial centre is Barcelona (1,595,110, 2007), capital of Barcelona province and Catalonia region. Other important cities include Valencia (797,654, 2007), capital of Valencia province and Valencia region, a manufacturing and rail centre; Seville (699,145, 2007), capital of Seville province and Andalusia region, a cultural centre; Saragossa (654,390, 2007), capital of Saragossa province Aragón region, another industrial centre; and Bilbao (353,168, 2007), a busy port.

D

Religion

Roman Catholicism is professed by about 97 per cent of Spaniards. The country is divided into 11 metropolitan and more than 50 suffragan sees. Formerly, Roman Catholicism was the established Church, but the 1978 constitution decreed that Spain shall have no state religion. There are small communities of Protestants, Jews, and Muslims.

E

Language

Spanish (or “Castilian”) is the primary official language, but many regional Spanish languages are also official languages in their respective regions. Catalan is spoken in the north-east and other areas; Galician (between Portuguese and Spanish, but more similar to Portuguese) is spoken in the north-west; Basque (or “Euskera”) along the French-Spanish border; Extremaduran in Extremadura; Asturian in Asturias; Fala in the north-west of Extremadura; and Aranese Gascon in the Aran Valley and the north-west part of Catalonia.

F

Education

The golden age of Spanish education occurred during the Middle Ages, when the Moors, Christians, and Jews established strong inter-religious centres of higher education in Córdoba, Granada, and Toledo. The University of Salamanca (1218) served as a model for the universities of Latin America from the 16th century on, thereby extending the international influence of Spanish education. During the 16th century the University of Alcalá (founded in Alcalá de Henares in 1510 and moved to Madrid as the University of Madrid in 1836) was famous for its multilingual, parallel translations of the Bible. Important Spanish educators of that period include Juan de Huarte, a pioneer in the application of psychology to education; the humanist and philosopher Juan Luis Vives, who interpreted new ideas on education and, in particular, advocated the education of women; and St Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus.

Others who made important contributions to education in the 19th and 20th century include Francisco Giner de los Rios, who sought reforms in higher education and the schooling of women; Francisco Ferrer Guardia, the nationalistic educator who advocated reform and democratization of education; and the philosopher José Ortega y Gasset, whose writings on the mission of the university have been translated into several languages. The Royal Spanish Academy (founded 1713) and the Royal Academy of History (1738) are well known for scholarly publications.

Education in Spain is free and compulsory for children between the ages of 6 and 16. The school system consists of pre-primary schools (for children 3 to 5 years old), primary (6 to 11), and secondary (ages 12 to 16, in two-year cycles). Students may then take either a vocational training course for one or two years, or the two-year Bachillerato course in preparation for university entrance. The university system has three cycles. The first, leading to the degree of Diplomatura, lasts for three years. The second cycle lasts for two or three years and leads to the degree of Licenciatura. Students earning the degree of Doctor must complete the two-year third cycle and write a thesis.

In 1995-1996 Spain’s pre-primary schools were attended by approximately 1.1 million pupils, primary schools by about 3.9 million, secondary, vocational, and technical schools by about 2.7 million students. The country has 97 per cent adult literacy. In 2005 around 4 per cent of the country’s gross national product (GNP) was spent on education.

Spanish institutions of higher education enrolled some 1,789,254 students in 2006. The major universities of Spain include the University of Madrid, the Polytechnic University of Madrid (1971), the University of Barcelona (1450), the University of Granada (1526), the University of Salamanca, the University of Seville (1502), and the University of Valencia (1510).