Child Care in Spain after 1975: the Educational Rationale, the Catholic Church, and Women in Civil Society

Abstract

In Spain today, preschool attendance rates are among the highest in the European Union (EU) for children aged three, four and five (96 percent, 100 percent, and 100 percent respectively). In contrast, Spanish child-care attendance rates are comparatively low for children aged two and under. Why is Spain at the vanguard of the European Union (EU) regarding preschool attendance rates for children aged three, four and five years? After briefly describing in the first section of this chapter the main Spanish preschool policies since 1975, in the second section I present the analytical framework to answer this question. In the third, fourth and fifth sections, I explain that in Spain most child-care provision has historically been part of education policy. Between the mid-1930s and 1975, Spain was governed by a right-wing authoritarian regime headed by General Francisco Franco. A transition to democracy and a stable democracy followed the dictatorship. After 1975, policy-makers continuously expanded the programmes that were already in place: public preschool services for children under the age of mandatory education (six years). In postauthoritarian Spain, the context was favourable for the increase in public preschool supply because the Catholic Church, which is a principal actor in education, is interested in the expansion of preschooling, provided that part of it is private and subsidised by the state.