Efforts to improve the education system are increasingly focusing on a question that many teachers and school leaders have been raising for years: how much of their working day is actually spent teaching, and how much is absorbed by paperwork.
The regional government has confirmed that it is preparing a new decree aimed at reducing the administrative burden placed on teachers and schools. Speaking before the Regional Assembly, Education and Vocational Training Minister Víctor Marín said the planned regulation would simplify teaching and planning procedures, cut administrative tasks carried out by school leadership teams and improve the digital tools used in schools.
According to Marín, the growth of bureaucracy accelerated after the implementation of the 2020 education reform, known as Lomloe. Schools have since faced additional planning requirements, more formalised procedures, a growing number of records to maintain and increasing demands to document actions that, in many cases, already exist elsewhere within the system.
The new decree is intended to address some of those pressures. Regional authorities say the goal is not only to streamline processes but also to establish common criteria across schools, standardise procedures and provide greater legal certainty for education professionals.
Marín argued that administrative systems should support education rather than dominate it. In his view, teachers should be spending their time preparing lessons and working directly with pupils, not producing reports that add little educational value.
The discussion about working conditions in education, however, is extending far beyond paperwork. At a national level, attention has increasingly turned towards the first cycle of early childhood education, covering children aged between zero and three years old.
During a meeting of Spain’s Sectoral Conference on Education, the Ministry of Education outlined the distribution of €329 million earmarked for programmes supporting vulnerable pupils and promoting inclusion in schools. Yet alongside funding allocations, one of the most closely watched issues was the future of class-size limits in nursery education.
The matter was added to the agenda at the request of the Madrid regional government, which is currently facing growing pressure from early years educators. Since April, workers in the sector have organised demonstrations demanding improvements to what they describe as poor working conditions and inadequate staffing levels.
Education Minister Milagros Tolón reiterated that the government intends to move ahead with plans to reduce the maximum number of children allowed in nursery classrooms. The legislative process, she confirmed, is expected to begin before the summer.
The proposal is not new. In 2022, the ministry presented draft regulations that would have reduced the maximum number of one-year-olds per classroom from 13 to 12 and lowered the limit for two-year-olds from 20 to 18. The cap for infants under one year old would have remained unchanged at eight children.
Those plans were ultimately shelved after facing strong resistance from several regional governments and parts of the private early years sector. Madrid was among the most vocal opponents. Rather than supporting a reduction, the regional administration formally requested that the national government increase the permitted ratio in classes for one-year-olds, arguing that lower limits would be expensive to implement and could reduce the number of available nursery places.
The regional proposal suggested maintaining a maximum of eight babies per classroom, increasing the limit for one-year-olds to 14 children and keeping the cap for two-year-olds at 20.
Opposition to the draft rules was not limited to conservative-led administrations. Some socialist regional governments also raised concerns, while private nursery providers argued that the sector was still recovering from the severe impact of the pandemic, when many families chose not to enrol their children because of fears surrounding infection.
That combination of political and economic pressure effectively froze the reform.
The issue has now returned to the forefront. Growing disputes in Madrid, combined with protests in other regions and the first nationwide strike ever organised within the 0–3 education cycle, have prompted the ministry to revive the proposal. Officials present the reduction in class sizes as part of a broader strategy to improve working conditions for education staff and strengthen educational quality during the earliest years of learning.
The ministry has also pointed out that regional governments do not need to wait for national legislation if they wish to act. Several autonomous communities have already introduced lower classroom limits than those required under current national regulations, particularly for two-year-old groups.
Alongside the debate over staffing levels and classroom capacity, the government is continuing to direct significant resources towards educational inclusion. The €329 million announced this week will support six programmes designed to help vulnerable pupils and strengthen schools facing greater social and educational challenges.
Among the initiatives receiving funding are mathematics and reading support schemes, the PROA+ programme for schools with complex educational needs, and measures aimed at reinforcing the role of wellbeing coordinators in schools and secondary colleges.
Taken together, the discussions over bureaucracy, staffing and class sizes point to a wider shift in education policy. Whether the focus is on teachers overwhelmed by administrative demands or nursery staff calling for smaller groups of children, the underlying argument remains remarkably similar: schools function best when educators have more time, more support and fewer obstacles standing between them and their pupils.