PALMA
THE Balearics was the region which had the highest percentage of foreign students during the last school year (2006 to 2007), with 13.6 percent of students coming from countries outside of Spain.
The total of foreign students on the islands last year was around 18'400 on the islands and 608'040 throughout the whole of Spain.
The percentage of foreign students in schools has gone from 0.7 percent to 8.4 percent in the last 10 years, according to the document Data for the school year 2007-2008, produced by the Statistics Office of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science.
During the last school year (2006 to 2007), at national level, a total of 608'040 pupils were of foreign nationality, as opposed to the total of 63'044 during the school year 1996 to 1997.
With regard to the previous school year (2005 to 2006), the percentage of students from other countries increased by some 14 percent to 530'954 foreign pupils.
In the case of the islands, the percentage has continued to rise every year during the last decade, especially in the 2003 to 2004 school year, during which 10.1 percent of the total students were foreign.
The following year (2004 to 2005) the percentage rose to 11.5 and in the 2005 to 2006 school year it increased again to 12.5 percent.
By nationalities (for the year 2005 to 2006), 16 percent of all the foreign students on the islands were from Morocco, followed by 14 percent from Ecuador and another 14 percent from Argentina.
After the Balearics, the regions with the highest percentage of foreign students are La Rioja (with 12.9 percent), Madrid (with 12.4 percent), and Catalonia (with 11.3 percent).
After these come Valencia (with 11.2 percent), Murcia (with 11 percent), Aragon (with 10.1 percent), and Navarra (with 9.7 percent).
The regions with the lowest percentage of foreign students are the autonomous town of Ceuta (1.5 percent), together with the regions of Extremadura (2.6 percent), Galicia (2.8 percent), and Asturias (3.8 percent).
The Spanish Minister for Education, Mercedes Cabrera, highlighted the capacity of the education system to absorb these students without all the conflicts which this absorption has caused in other countries.
The Minister was speaking after attending a meeting of the Commission of Education and Science.