What's Wrong with Catalan Schools? (II)

The Catalan school system has three tiers: state/public schools compete directly with publicly funded independent schools, which compete in their turn, more obliquely, with entirely private schools. The independent schools are not authorised to charge tuition, but do.

Three tiers means that greater public funding goes to public schools, from which the greatest uniformity is expected (though some experimentation is allowed). Independent schools are in less of a straight-jacket--for example,  single sex schools receive public funding--but share few resources and they do not work as a network. Special programmes are specific to one school, and few schools can have the numbers to set up enriched math, English, or French classes. Consequently, grouping by ability is, like specialisation, almost impossible, and it is left to private schools--and, socially, to the rich--the pursue enriched curricula from which many more students could benefit.