Distribution of Foreign Non-university Schools

DISTRIBUTION OF FOREIGN NON-UNIVERSITY SCHOOLS In terms of the present distribution per island, the capital or core cities are the most notable, accounting for 73.28% of all foreign schoolchildren in the Canary Islands who are not enrolled in universities. With 37.7% of this group, Tenerife is the largest, followed by Gran Canaria with 35.58%. Fuerteventura, with 6.72%, and Lanzarote, which already has 14.8%, are next and far behind.Thirteen These two islands have seen a noteworthy force of migration attraction and a recent substantial socioeconomic boost, which has contributed to their performance. The islands of La Palma, La Gomera, and El Hierro have an unequal distribution of the remaining 5.2% (see figure 1). Furthermore, depending on each island, the proportion of international students to the total number of students varies greatly, In Lanzarote, for instance, the proportion of foreign students to students of Spanish nationality reached 14.8% in the 2002-2003 school year. In some Arona, Tías, Arrecife, or Pájara schools, there are particular circumstances where a classroom already has a significant majority of foreign students; in Gran Canaria or Tenerife, the percentage is lower. On the other hand, comparable rates of 11.53 to 10% are seen at schools in several towns of Fuerteventura and in Arona (Tenerife). When we break down the growth rate of foreign-origin schoolchildren by island, we first observe that the eastern islands are growing faster than the regional average. This is primarily because Gran Canaria, with its growth rate of only 107.6%, is significantly below the average, while the intensity of growth in the eastern islands is reflected in a fairly high percentage of variation (137.4%). As a result, the province of Las Palmas as a whole has higher development in this area, with 3,25l students in the five courses that are the focus of our study rising to 7,718. However, in the western Canary Islands, growth rates consistently fall short of the regional average. For example, from 3,205 foreign schoolchildren in 1997/1998 to 5,799 for the 2001/2002 academic year, there has been a change of 80.9%. This change is primarily due to Tenerife, which has grown at a rate of 90.5%, which is ten points higher than the provincial index but still significantly below the Community's overall results. During the previous five academic years, we have been able to confirm, on the one hand, that only IS out of the 87 municipalities in Canary Islands have absorbed more than 20% of the group of students of foreign origin that their respective islands represent. The following is a list of them from east to west: Arona in Tenerife; Los Llanos and Santa Cruz de La Palma on the island of La Palma; San Sebastián and Valle Gran Rey in La Gomera; La Oliva, Pájara, and Puerto del Rosario in Fuerteventura; Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and San Bartolomé de Tirajana in Gran Canaria; San Sebastián and Valle Gran Rey in La Gomera; and Valverde and Frontera in El Hierro. Conversely, the majority of foreign schoolchildren living in the Canary Islands are concentrated in the municipalities of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, San Bartolomé de Tirajana, Arona, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, La Laguna, Tías, Arrecife, and Santa Lucía de Tirajana, as indicated by absolute figures (see figure 3). This distribution, as can be seen, amply illustrates that immigration and its effects on the supply and demand for education are phenomena that are primarily centered on the Canary Islands. Furthermore, as it only occurs in 32.1% of the islands surface for territorial purposes, this evaluation even qualifies it as extraordinary.