MADRID – The Spanish Ministry of Education has been working on changes to the education law since Congress approved the LOMLOE education law (or Celaá law, named after the Spanish Minister of Education) in November.
One of the priorities of the new Spanish education law is to change the content of the compulsory education. The Ministry wants to put an end to the overabundance of subject matter and memorisation. Instead, it wants to focus on interdisciplinary work and learning new skills.
Output profile
The new curriculum begins, for example, by defining an “exit profile” for pupils that focuses on “the challenges of today´s citizen”. In other words, what pupils should know or be able to do at the end of compulsory education.
Eight new skills
One of the major innovations proposed is, in addition to traditional subjects, pupils must also master eight new skills. The starting point is the core competences established by the European Union and in the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
These include linguistic skills, with which pupils learn to distinguish fake news. And, for example, digital skills, mathematics, citizenship or entrepreneurship. All `relevant cultural knowledge´ will remain part of the curriculum. However, the emphasis will be on `the importance for humanity and the significance for the life and professional practice of each pupil´, rather than factual knowledge and memorisation.
Interdisciplinary and autonomy
In order to achieve these objectives, The Ministry of Education also strives for interdisciplinary work. For example, that the same content is dealt with through different subjects or fields of study. This also stimulates cooperation between teachers and between pupils.
On the other hand, the Ministry also wants to promote autonomy in the area of the curriculum. This is a `fundamental´ factor for the quality of education. Schools are given time in the timetable to organise the learning that is most suitable for their pupils.
Summer
According to the LOMLOE law, between 50-60% of the curriculum is fixed. The rest is determined by the autonomous community and 5% by the school. The bill of Celaá’s ministry is still under discussion. It should be ready by the summer. However, it would not be introduced before the academic year 2022-2023. This is to give the publishers of textbooks time to implement the changes. In addition, the Spanish Ministry of Education wants to join other, more innovative educational models in countries. These countries include Finland, Scotland or Portugal, as they seem to offer better results than the current Spanish model.
