Spain scrambles to give immigrants better schooling

Language instruction for nonnative Spanish speakers is generally considered the most controversial issue facing education. While the current proposal favors integration, many educators say that students need to be separated and taught mathematics or biology in their native languages until they speak Spanish fluently. For now, there is no clear plan being implemented across the system.

At Emilia Pardo Bazon, students receive five hours of Spanish instruction a week. In other schools, teachers offer classes outside of school hours or none at all. "Students are thrown into biology and math classes and expected to learn through osmosis," Professor Marin says.

Mariano Caballero, who teaches history at the high school Nuestra Señora de los Dolores, says that when new immigrants arrive without language skills, he tries to have them relocated because Spanish language classes are not offered there.

"Otherwise, students get lost in the system," he says. "They take my class without understanding anything." By law, the system provides 16 hours of Spanish instruction for high school students, but there are not teachers in every school to meet that requirement, he says.

Some educators, like Mr. Caballero, believe that schools have not been given proper resources because of hostile attitudes surrounding immigration.

Mr. Hueso says it is not uncommon for school principals - particularly in private schools - to block immigrants from enrolling by claiming there is not enough space.

When they do come in, these students often end up isolated. "Moroccan children cluster together because they know the same language, eat the same food," says Hueso, "and the schools end up reproducing the segregated society that exists outside."

The education department of Madrid has tried to combat discrimination by creating cultural-awareness programs, facilitated by various nongovernmental organizations.

The Antonio Moreno Rosales elementary school in Lavapies, another immigrant neighborhood of Madrid, seeks to foster cultural integration by celebrating a range of holidays or offering foods from different countries. Habiba Ben Rabah, for instance, teaches Arabic and Moroccan culture and decorates her classroom with Arabic proverbs and pictures of mosques. Her class is full of students from all over the world, predominantly Northern Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe.

Because it is difficult to direct government money in Spain toward creating bilingual education or other programs for immigrant children, educators have been looking for effective grass-roots models.

At the recent US Embassy meeting, panelist Pamela Dungy introduced a program that California's Fresno Unified School District created for the Khmer population. Like some Moroccan students in Spain, the Khmer students had been exhibiting learning and behavioral problems, so the district created a language- and cultural-immersion program to help them reestablish their roots. "It started as a grass-roots effort and turned around their dysfunctional behavior completely," Ms. Dungy says.

But right now in Spain, programs with that degree of development and follow-through don't exist, says Mr. el-Madkouri, leaving many social-service and religious organizations to fill the void. At one school, for example, a group of parents organized afternoon Arabic classes. And a nonprofit group offers Saturday classes in Arabic for children of mixed marriages.

After all, says Emilio Casas, the priest in Madrid who runs the program, "If there is a large group of people uneducated, isolated, or distant, then what is going to happen to society?"

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