The government is preparing a bill to amend Evau (the old selectivity), but the PP is not going to make it easy for them. The Ministry of Education had a sample this Wednesday at the sectoral conference, which brings regional executives to the same table as the central one to discuss education issues. Councilors from Madrid, Andalusia, Galicia, Murcia and Castilla y León criticized the department, led by Pilar Alegría, for working on a reform that does not take into account their main demand: a single and uniform exam for all of Spain. They also asked to postpone its implementation.
The sectoral meeting was not called for – the agenda included small budget issues and a special call for job stabilization that communities should do – but communities such as Madrid and Andalusia took advantage of the forum to air their grievances. “The model suggested us [el ministerio] This is a new loss of the quality of the educational system, with a maturity test that combines subjects and which will lead to even more discrimination and differences between students,” sources from the Commonwealth of Madrid explain their denial.
During the conference, PP advisers emphasized the demand for one test. The person in charge of Castile and León, Rocio Lucas, explained that “there cannot be 17 different tests for one university district”, a model he described as “unfair”. Lucas lamented that education “does not listen to the proposals of Castile and Leon” and announced that if the ministry continues in the same line, it will “separate” from the design of the new test.
Galicia is expressed along the same lines. Councilor Roman Rodríguez considered the fact that his proposals have not been adopted and spoke of “inequality” and “lost opportunities”.
Madrid added that the maturity test on which the new model revolves is “imprecise” and represents a “devaluation” of the majority monopolies in the final class.
The PP has long advocated a single test for all of Spain to ensure equal opportunities among all students, according to the popular argument. The president of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, said a few days ago that “there are many complaints from the students of the University of Madrid, who explain to us how, as a host region, they are often at a disadvantage because they do not have the same level of demand and educational quality in the rest, not all , and in other regions there are different educational systems, then they fail, with very good grades”.
According to Ayuso, Madrid is considering “establishing two types of university entrance exams: one for students who want to access any university in the national territory and another for those who want to study in their own region,” David Noriega reported. From the CCOO, they doubt that this can be done legally.
The proposal, in which education works, aims to halve the number of exams and introduces a test they called “Academic Maturity”, which “will mainly assess skills related to the linguistic field. [castellano, lengua propia si la hubiera y lengua extranjera]and which aims to assess mainly the academic maturity of the students”. The idea is to move to a competency model, according to Lomloe, which is more in line with what is done in Europe and which does not mark the academic year as it is now, when the entire 2nd year of the bachelor’s degree is mainly Dedicated to special preparation for the exam.
The Maturity Test will be the axis on which Evau rotates and will count for 75% of the final grade. According to the Ministry’s project, this exam “consists of a series of documents (texts, images, infographics, graphs, tables, audio-visuals, etc.) on the same topic, in which students are asked to analyze from different aspects and perspectives, to answer Different types of questions (closed, semi-structured and open). The goal is to assess students’ ability to analyze, evaluate, extract information, or connect all of this documentation. , more or less guided by questions or suggestions”. The remaining 25% of the grade will be assigned to the third exam in the modality subject.
The maturity test is divided into three stages: in the first, the “dossier” that each student will receive (documents in different formats: texts, photos, etc.) will be analyzed for 15 minutes. Then there will be a series of questions, some in a foreign language, of a more closed nature, aimed at assessing “students’ ability to think critically, reflect and mature”, for which they will have 40 minutes. Finally, three open-ended questions, which the applicants will need to answer and develop in another 45 minutes.
Before this final model is implemented, there will be a transitional phase consisting of three exams (History of Philosophy, History of Spain and a subject chosen by the student according to the chosen undergraduate route) plus a maturity test in format. abbreviated. Each of these exams will be 25% of the grade. This transitional phase will last for three courses.
Both models will have a second phase, called admission, which will be voluntary and involve universities – as is the case now, with each center using a weighted factor for each additional test based on their quality. This final phase is used by certain students to raise their scores to achieve the most sought-after scores and allows students to choose a maximum score of 14.
The ministry claims that its new model, which is still in the design phase, will allow progress towards some uniformity in the test, although there will not be a single test that PP claims. The working group preparing the proposal is now collecting ideas from the communities, the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (Crue) and other stakeholders to determine their final proposal. What is not expected to change is the balance of the exam in relation to the final grade: 60% for BA, 40% for EVA.
For the PP, this rejection of one test is a red line that will cause it not to support the reform, although its approval is not really necessary to implement it, as it is approved as a royal decree. Yes, it will need to be confirmed by Congress, for which the government will need the support of its usual partners in the lower house, which, at least in the nationalist and independent part, is not exactly going through a homogenous formation. test.
In these moments, education works in the way of dialogue. Alegría’s number two, José Manuel Barr, has maintained contacts with some regional officials, and a group created to finalize test design is working on exam preparation and revision criteria comparable to some test uniformity. Insufficient measures for the PP and what abounds in “lack of objectivity”, lamented the Castilian-Leonean councilor Lucas.
For now, there will be a pilot test this spring after “calibrating” the new model when it’s ready. If all goes as Education has planned, the transition phase will begin in June 2024 and the final model will be in place three years later for students who are in their second year of undergraduate studies in 2026-2027.
Source: El Diario
