Number of schools K-12	Number of teachers K-12	Number of students K-12	Number of studens per computer K-12
30.208[1]	607.401[1]	5.692.520[1]	3[2]

Sources:
^[1] www.educacionyfp.gob.es/servicios-al-ciudadano/estadisticas.html
Advancement 2018-2019
^[2] www.educacionyfp.gob.es/dam/jcr:b998eea2-76c0-4466-946e-965698e9498d/datosycifras1920esp.pdf Data 2016-2017
This includes computers addressed preferably to teachers & teaching with students

Organization responsible for education	Role of the organization	Website
The education system has a decentralised management and administration model. Educational powers are shared between: the State General Administration (Ministry of Education and Vocational Training). the Autonomous Communities (Departments for Education). The Ministry establishes the legal framework regulating the principles, objectives, and organisation of the different school levels, and develops part of the curriculum. The Education Departments of the regions develop and manage their education systems within the bounds of the national policy framework.
Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MEVT)	It is in charge of the proposal and implementation of the Government policy in the field of education and vocational training Determines the legislation through developing principles, objectives and the organisation of different education levels, the content of teaching and the taught subjects	www.educacionyfp .gob.es
Ministries of Education (regional level)	Regions have autonomy regarding educational governance design the education policy develop their education system in their own region management of the regional education systems. school maintenance, surveillance and cleaning of Secondary Schools Deployment of telecommunication infrastructure. Organisation and delivery of education They provide 80% of the education budget and its distribution according to some national guidelines.	http://www.educaciony fp.gob.es/contenidos/in/ comunidades- autonomas.html
Education Sector Conference (Conferencia Sectorial de Educación)	MEVT and regional ministries cooperate through this body in order to design coherent education policies	https://www.educacionyfp .gob.es/educacion/mc/con ferencia-sectorial-educacion/funcion amiento.html
State Secretariat for Education, Vocational Training and Universities within (MEVT)	It is in charge of the superior management of the competences in terms of Education and Vocation Training assigned to the Ministry.	http://www.educac ionyfp.gob.es/ ministerio/organigrama/ ministra/secretaria-estado-ed ucacion-fp.html
State School Board (other education stakeholders such as teachers’ unions, school owners and students’ representatives work together in the frame of it) (Consejo Escola del Estado)	It is the participation body of the stakeholders more directly related to Education. It offers consulting, advisory, and proposal support to the National government in different aspects of the education system.	http://www.educacionyfp.g ob.es/educacion/mc/ cee/portada.html
National Conference of University Rectors (Conferencia de Rectores de Universidades Españolas)	Represents Universities	http://www.crue.org/Site Pages/Inicio.aspx
Higher Board of Arts Education (Consejo Superior de Enseñanzas Artísticas)	Provides advice regarding the respective area	https://www.educacionyfp .gob.es/educacion/mc/ cseartisticas/inicio.html
Regional Councils for Vocational Training	Develop regional plans, and propose improvements in VET.
Local authorities and municipalities	work with the ministries of autonomous communities to monitor early childhood education and care, as well as compulsory and special education schools: have the competence on the maintenance, ,cleaning & caretakers (concierge) of Primary Schools. Cession of plots for school building in charge of nurseries (0-3 years old)
Schools	In the decision making at the school level, the School Councils participate including representatives of teachers’ body, students’ body, the town council, parents and non-teaching staff.
Source: www.oecd.org/education/Education-Policy-Outlook-Country-Profile-Spain-2018.pdf www.educacionyfp.gob.es/contenidos.html European Commission / EACEA National Policies Platform / Eurydice / Spain Overview: https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/content/spain_en

Year	Primary education	Lower secondary education	Upper secondary education	Total
2012	11876,2	8653,8	8534,7	29064,7
2013	11596,2	7765,8	8618,7	27980,7
2014	11694,2	7751,0	8568,1	28013,2
2015	12306,5	8091,3	8909,0	29306,7
2016	12638,8	8234,3	9337,9	30256,0
Source: Eurostat (online data codes: educ_uoe_fine01)

Public procurement system is highly decentralized. The basic regulation is established by the State, applying the EU content. The regions with relevant competences, can regulate non-basic aspects in terms of procurement.

The Ministry of Finance is in charge of national public procurement policy through two main bodies:

• Directorate General for State Assets (Dirección General de Bienes del Estado) is responsible for the general regulatory framework on public procurement, the national strategy for e-procurement and national e-procurement platform.
• The second, the Directorate General for Rationalisation and Centralisation (Dirección General de Racionalización y Centralización de la Contratación) of Procurement, focuses on the harmonisation and centralisation of national public procurement, operates as the central purchasing body for the State administration and State-related entities.

 

Advisory bodies on procurement

State Advisory Board on Public Procurement (Junta Consultiva de Contratación Pública del Estado) belonging to the Ministry of Finance provides legal advice and guidance in order to improve the quality of public contracts in terms of administrative, technical and financial aspects.

Almost all regions have their own advisory board which create reports and recommendations to improve the public procurement process.

• Cooperation Committee in public procurement (Comité de cooperación en materia de contratación pública). It coordinates interpreting criteria and prepare the proposal of the National Strategy on Public Procurement.
• Independent Office of Public Procurement Regulation and Supervision (Oficina Independiente de Regulación y Supervisión de la Contratación9. It controls the correct aplication of the legislation and, in particular, the promotion of concurrence, and fight againts ilegalities.
• National Evaluation Office (Oficina Nacional de Evaluación). It supervises public procurement.  It analyses the financial sustainability Works concessions, as well as service concessions and contracts.

 

Public Procurement Platforms to manage procurement publicity

There are platforms which help the administrations, collect the information about the awarded contracts and support the contracting authorities in the procurement process through electronic systems:

• Public Sector Procurement Platform (Plataforma de Contratación del Sector Público).
• Some regional Procurement Platform

 

Official register of tenderers and registered businesses.

• Official Registry of Tenderers and Contractors of the State (ROLECE)
• Register of bidding companies in some Regions.

 

Register of Contracts in the Public Sector.

• Register of Public Contracts (Registro de Contratos Públicos - RCP).
• Register of Public Contracts at some Regions.

 

Control & supervision entities

The main control and supervision bodies in the public sector are the following ones:

• State Court of Auditors (Tribunal de Cuentas del Estado).
• General Intervention Board of the State Administration.
• Regional Court of Auditors (Sindicaturas de Cuentas)
• Intervention bodies at regional level
• Intervention bodies at local level.

The General Intervention Board, both at State and regional levels, carries out intenal audits to guarantee the legality and efficiency.

 

Administrative Courts related to Public Procurement:

Central Administative Court of Procurement Appeals (Tribunal Administrativo Central de Recursos Contractuales) (TACRC):
It is an administrative body specialized in solving issues related to public procurement.
It deals special appeals in the area of ​​contracting. Their decisions can be appealed in the judicial field.
There are also Courts of Contractual Resources in the Autonomous Communities.

According to the new Law on Public Sector Procurement (Law 9/2017, 8th November, which adapts EU Directives 2014/23/UE  and 2014/24/UE, 26th February 2014, of the European Parliament and European Council), these are the modalities of public contracts in Spain:

1.   Minor Contracts: are used to purchase goods and services with a value lower than 15.000 EUR (+VAT), or works lower than 40.000 (+VAT). For these contracts, three offers have to be gathered and the Local Governing Body approves the purchasing.
2.   Negotiated procedure without publicity: According to the new procurement law (9/2017), this procedure can only be applied in a number of limited cases defined at article 168 of the aforementioned Law.
3.   Simplified open procurement and Super simplified open procurement procedure: these 2 new procedures have been introduced with the new Public Sector Contract Law (9/2017). Taking into account the amount of the contract, they can be used for the acquisition of goods and services when their value is either equal or lower than 100.000€ (simplified open procedure) or when their value is equal or lower than 35.000€ (super simplified open procedure). The deadlines to present the offers are different depending if they are simplified or super simplified procedures.
4.   Open procedure: is used for purchases with a value of more than 100.000 EUR (+VAT). This method requires a public process with different publicity periods, depending on the type of products/services to be purchased.
5.   Uniform regulation: these contracts are subject to European directives on public procurement including:

• public work contracts and works concessions with a value of 5.548.000 EUR or more
• supply contracts up to 144.000 EUR, which are awarded by the National Government and linked entities
• supply contracts up to 200 000 221.000 EUR which are awarded by entities, organizations or public sector entities other than those mentioned above
• services contracts up to 144.000 EUR, which are awarded by the National Government
• services contracts up to 221.000 EUR, which are awarded by entities, organizations or public sector entities other than the ones listed above

 

Contracts using the Uniform regulation can be managed only by public procurers, and they have to be published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The contract can be separated into batches of activity, and in this case, each batch can be issued separately. The batches contain different functional units. The batch splitting has to be clearly specified in the call and the supplier can present an offer to one or more batches.

At the Education level, and in terms of ICT, it is the Education Department of the regional government the one who  buys and provides schools with ICT. Therefore ICT equipment at public schools is quite uniform.

In addition to this, Educational institutions have also the right to use a small amount of their budget, once they cover their basic foreseen functions.. Schools can receive additional funding from city councils, parents’ associations and companies.

In case of purchasing ICT tools, In the case of Catalonia, for example, there are special rules that have to be taken into consideration. The entitled purchasing body for ICT purchasing is the Telecommunications and Information Technologies Centre (CTTI), that gathers the needs of all the areas (education, health, etc.). After the request is received, the purchase is assessed according to the strategy and budget available, and if approved, the purchase is delivered to the Education Centre.

The School Management Team has to design the Technology Plan for Learning and Knowledge including the procurement needs regarding ICT. The implementation of the plan is also designed by the centre individually through the Working Committee, in a collaborative way, through Management Board decision, etc. This plan has to be approved both by the teachers and the Principal. Basically, the Principals are the procurers as they are entitled to the procurement at acountancy level. They also have to lead the process and to promote the process.

In the case of private schools, that also have to implement the Technology Plan for Leaning which is compulsory private centre owners exercise decision making power. In any case, they must be in line with their ICT/digital competences objectives and must be approved by the regional government. In private schools proposals are made by the Management Board regarding which ICT tool to purchase and have to be approved by the Principal. In the proposal making process, teachers specialized in the ICT area and teachers with specific knowledge in the area of the subject of the purchase provide advice to the Management Board. The Management Board is entitled to ask for bids from the suppliers, and after the approval of the Principal, the owners of the private centre decide about the offers. The principals are in charge of the design and presentation of the proposal and the request for advice in the area of ICT solutions to decide whether to buy or rent the devices.

 

Sources:
https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/policy/how/improving-investment/public-procurement/study/country_profile/es.pdf
European Commission / EACEA National Policies Platform / Eurydice / Spain Overview:
https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/content/spain_en

 

 

Procurement process in Spain