2.2 Chapter 9 education of immigration students in the community  (Page 2/9)

Moving on to other examples, the growth of the colonial empires of Portugal and Spain during the 15th through the 17th centuries constitutes a landmark in the conformation of the American population. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Dutch and British extended their navigation, with ships reaching remote zones of the East. In the 19th century, the industrial revolution entailed great changes in the population of the planet because new industrialization mechanisms penetrated and modified their particular societies. One of the most significant changes was the total increase of the population. In 1750, the total world-wide population amounted to about 800 million people, and a century later it reached 1.3 billion. Concretely, Europe went from 145 million in 1750 to 400 million in 1900. Pushed by this internal demographic pressure and with the advantage of technological superiority, Europeans were scattered throughout the globe, pacifically or by means of conquests. According to the UN, the great European exodus has been the most important migratory movement of the modern age, and perhaps the greatest one of humanity’s history.

The large extent of Europe’s migratory history comes as a surprise to many, who rather see it as a stable place. Migratory flows will remain, however, due to the accessibility of the knowledge of where the better labor and political condition exist thanks to global communication and transportation technology. Any person of any country can detect in what place they are offered better, more vital conditions and implement the mechanisms for their transfer. For example, most of the arrived foreigners to Madrid in the last years come from Ecuador, not from some bordering country or near Spain.

The community of Madrid evidently faces coexistence challenges due to a population that comes from different countries with people of different capacities and talents, along with the habitual differences between all human beings. This society of “differents” forces us to learn to respect that difference and to look for its enriching aspects. The following data refers to Madrid: In the beginning of the 2004/2005 school year, 93,500 students of other countries have been educated as opposed to the 25,000 from 1999-2000. Schools in Madrid manage more than 55 different languages belonging to more than one hundred-twenty nationalities.

The following progression in Figure 1 shows a sample of this fast evolution, relative to the annual education of pupils coming from other countries to Madrid.

Figure 1. Evolution relative to annual education of pupils from other countries coming to Madrid.

Source: General Directive of Educative Promotion. Council of Education. Madrid.

Nearly 15,000 students present special educative necessities derived from some type of handicap, and of those students, 1.5-2% pose high capacities. The set of this population forces our system to respond to the challenge that these children’s diversity creates so that they can all obtain the proposed objectives. All students can develop their capacities and turn them into competitive tools, but success depends upon the functionality of the system’s general structure and operation, as well as the support of all the teaching staff most of all. We should not forget the absolute necessity of the cooperation of the family, society, and, in particular, the mass media, if we want to offer a coherent educative guideline to the children and young people in their formative stage. Education is everyone’s task, and if some facet fails, it will be difficult to reach the demanding goals that society itself raises and demands on the schools.