Navarra publishes the new organization of public schools and institutes

The Official Gazette of Navarre number 159 publishes this Thursday, August 13, the Foral Orders 36/2026 and 40/2026, signed by the Minister of Education, Carlos Gimeno Gurpegui, which develop the Regulation of Organization and Functioning of public centers in the Chartered Community. The first, dated June 30, applies to Early Childhood and Primary Education centers; the second, dated July 1, to those of Compulsory Secondary Education and Baccalaureate. Both shall enter into force the day following their publication in the gazette.

The Foral Order 36/2026 regulates the Early Childhood and Primary Education schools, the Primary Education schools, and the early childhood schools owned by the Department of Education of the Government of Navarre. The Foral Order 40/2026 does the same with the Compulsory Secondary Education institutes, the Secondary Education institutes, and the Basic Education centers.

Both provisions develop the Foral Decree 14/2026, of February 25, which approved the new Regulation of Organization and Functioning of centers providing Early Childhood, Primary, Compulsory Secondary Education, Baccalaureate, Vocational Training, artistic, language, sports, adult education, or special education. The decree repealed the old organic regulations of 1997 —Foral Decree 24/1997 and Foral Decree 25/1997— and the foral orders that developed them, 257/1998 and 258/1998, and authorized the Minister of Education to issue the development regulations, subject to the mandatory report of the School Council of Navarre and under the Foral Law 14/2004, of December 3.

Pedagogical, organizational and management autonomy

The new orders specify the autonomy that the Organic Law 2/2006, on Education, as amended by Organic Law 3/2020, recognizes to centers to articulate their own operating models. Among the areas they regulate are:

• The preparation and approval of the organization and functioning rules, the educational project, the annual general program and the management project of each center.
• The regime of governing bodies: management team, school council and teaching staff, with their composition, competences and substitutes.
• The teaching coordination bodies: group and cycle teaching teams, pedagogical coordination committee, tutoring, educational support unit and didactic coordination departments.
• The participation of families, with channels of educational co-responsibility, mothers and fathers associations, group delegates and delegate councils.
• The rights and duties of students, the coexistence and coeducation plans and the general schedule of the center.

Rural schools

The Foral Order 36/2026 incorporates three annexes identifying rural schools, the twelve rural areas in which they are grouped, and the school networks of each area. The competent general directorate may update them by resolution, and Foral Order 40/2026 refers to that same regime for ESO and Baccalaureate schools with rural school status.

Schedule of application and changes in assessment

• The applicability of both regulations will take effect from the school year 2026/2027.
• The appointment of deputy headship positions will apply from the 2027/2028 school year, once their pay concept is regulated.
• Foral Order 40/2026 also amends Foral Orders 52/2023, 53/2023 and 45/2023, which regulate assessment in Primary, ESO and Baccalaureate, to unify the grading scale (Insufficient, Sufficient, Good, Notable and Outstanding; numerical from 0 to 10 in Baccalaureate).

With this new framework, the Navarrese public school network introduces as of the 2026/2027 school year the operating rules for all its schools, early childhood schools and secondary schools: the regulation affects management teams, teaching staff, school councils, teaching departments and families, and replaces the organisational framework approved in 1997 and 1998.

Source: Official Gazette of Navarre, no. 159, 13 August 2026, section 1.1.3 (Foral Orders), pp. 29455 and 29498 (official references: F2609588 and F2609673).