Education, in addition to being an essential tool for the personal and social development of young people, is the most effective instrument of social mobility for inclusion, the most formidable engine of growth and ...
Education, in addition to being an essential tool for the personal and social development of young people, is the most effective instrument of social mobility for inclusion, the most formidable engine of growth and progress of a society. From this conviction, this reform is presented, the Organic Law for the Improvement of Educational Quality, LOMCE, which also tries to guarantee a minimum homogeneity, through the signaling offered by the evaluations and the reservation of basic competences of the State, so that all students in Spain receive a quality education, regardless of the Community in which they live.
Spain is one of the OECD countries with the greatest dispersion and disparity of results by Autonomous Community. Various international reports have revealed the weaknesses of our educational system: 25% early school leaving; up to 32% school failure in 2006; 67% of young people, between twenty-five and thirty-four years old, without a secondary school degree; 55% youth unemployment; low graduation in vocational training, 40%, and absence of external and final evaluations.
Faced with this reality, we are witnessing a permanent attempt to mediatize and divert attention towards less relevant aspects of the Reform with the sole objective of avoiding the debate on the real underlying issue: the data on school failure in our country.
The real attack on public education is produced by that up to 32%, which we have had in recent years, of students who are expelled from our educational system. One in four. That is the real segregation that is taking place in Public Schools.
And how can we not assume the responsibility of responding to that 32% of students?.
The objectives of the Law cannot be other than to guarantee the improvement of the quality of universal education in all phases, both compulsory and non-compulsory. From respect for the competences that the Autonomous Communities have transferred in matters of education, the State will guarantee minimum learning standards.
The new text addresses different aspects of the Organic Law on Education (LOE), which, by the way, it does not repeal, but which it intends to improve, adapt and provide with the necessary instruments, as countries around us with better results already do.
Promoting Vocational Training, giving centers more autonomy or reinforcing core subjects, such as mathematics, language and languages, are just some of the priorities.
Regarding the debate on co-official languages, the Law gives them a treatment analogous to the Spanish language, giving them the same importance. It is the Autonomous Communities that decide the schedule and the curriculum, which are part of the continuous and final evaluations, and they are also called to guarantee the right of students to receive education in Spanish, the official language of the State, in addition to the co-official languages.
In this sense, the opinion of the Council of State, in accordance with jurisprudence, recognizes that the Autonomous Communities are the ones that have to decide and guarantee a reasonable proportion of both languages, as stated in the Bill. The opinion goes further by pointing out that this does not have to determine the exclusion of Spanish as a teaching language and, furthermore, that its knowledge and use must be guaranteed in the territory of the Autonomous Community.
Because one thing is that a language is part of the offer of subjects in an educational system and quite another that it is the vehicular language of the system. Furthermore, the opinion affirms that Spanish cannot be excluded as the vehicular language of education in Catalonia. And not only the opinion, there are also several sentences to comply with in that same direction.
The Council also appreciates that there must be a sustained offer with public funds of education in Spanish, something that has not been fulfilled and hence the court rulings. It is the judicial resolutions that say that education in Spanish must be ensured as a vehicular language. It is, therefore, a question of complying with a recognized right. This is stated in judgment 31/2010, of June 28, of the Constitutional Court on the Statute of Catalonia, which considers that Spanish, as a co-official language, should be a vehicular language. It recognizes, and I quote literally: "nothing allows, however, that Spanish is not subject to the same right or enjoys with the Catalan language the condition of vehicular language in education". The Council adds that the State must ensure respect for linguistic rights and guarantee that education is received in the official language of the State, since the constitutional duty to know it cannot be forgotten.
Regarding the economic report, which is part of the Law's file, it establishes the foreseeable costs that the implementation will entail and that will be compensated in the terms established in the Organic Law on Financing of the Autonomous Communities, by virtue of the principle of institutional loyalty. To this effect, the constitution of a working group for the study of these educational expenses is already being prepared at this time.
The Reform is essential. Now a wide space opens for the meeting during the parliamentary process, both in the Congress and in the Senate. From the Popular Party, we invite all political formations and other sectors of the Educational Community to make a common effort, so that from dialogue, we seek the broadest consensus to improve the final text of the Law.
*Francisco Cabrera García, Deputy of the Popular Party in the Congress of Deputies.
