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Education for students with disadvantaged family backgrounds is almost exclusively provided by public schools in Spain, especially in less developed regions

The percentage of students with socio-economically disadvantaged family backgrounds for learning varies greatly among the Spanish regions.  There are also large differences in the type of students that attend public and private education centers. Students with socio-economically advantaged backgrounds mainly attend private education centers, representing 65% of their total students. In addition, private schools have a low number of students with disadvantaged family backgrounds (8%).  On the other hand, public schools in Spain have a large disadvantaged student population with an average of one-third of the total. However, this percentage is even higher in less developed regions such as Extremadura, Canary Islands and Andalusia, where half of the students in public education centers come from disadvantaged family backgrounds. These socio-economic differences also result in differences in student performance between public and private schools, which are made evident by the number of grade repeaters and PISA test results.  As a result, these inequalities weaken public schools.