Marina Segura Ramos |
Madrid (EFE).- The first 2nd year high school students to take the university entrance exam will do so with the “traditional” model prior to the approval of the latest educational reform, a very different scenario for young people of the 2024 course, which today is of maximum uncertainty.
On May 31, the Ministry of Education decided to paralyze the approval of the future royal decree of the new Ebau -the old selectivity- by arguing that it is more reasonable to leave it in the hands of the Government that leaves the polls on July 23.
Although the processing of the draft standard will conclude with its submission to the Council of State, it will not be sent to the Council of Ministers, scheduled for June so that teachers and students are aware of the new 2024 model well in advance.
Now, numerous doubts are raised to the centers and to the parents whose children begin this year 2nd year of high school. Some teachers believe that these students are placed at a disadvantage.
Despite the fact that Education, with its minister Pilar Alegría at the helm, repeatedly promised to inform in advance of the changes, the unexpected decision has provoked the anger of Ceapa, the largest confederation of parent and student associations in the country.
La Ceapa complains that it will not be a “quiet year” either
Its president, María Capellán, explains that this year they will not be able to have a “calm year” either, since they continue to “play with the future of our children with so much uncertainty and so many changes in laws and governments. Education cannot be allowed to be a throwing weapon ”between parties, she emphasizes.
Chaplain explains that the students who will now start their 2nd year of high school will have to choose the subjects and electives without knowing what weighting they will have in the university entrance exam.
The weighting are coefficients that allow the university entrance mark to be modified, giving greater importance to the subjects that are directly related to the university degree to which one wishes to access.
It is not the only problem, for example, it was considered that in the 2024 university entrance exam one could choose between the History of Philosophy and the History of Spain, which in practice allowed the student to dedicate more to that subject than he would later chose to examine Now a new unknown arises for 2024.
Nor is it known exactly how the new competency model will be applied to the Ebau, less memorizing and more knowing how to apply the knowledge learned in the real world, which Lomloe requires.
The latest educational reform, the Organic Education Law (Lomloe, better known as the Celaá Law) began to be applied in 2021 but many of the changes come into force in stages. In the case of the university entrance exam, the idea is to go step by step until its full implementation in the 2027-2028 academic year.
The June exams will maintain the same format as in the last three courses, conditioned by the covid and which forced the closure of educational centers. The young people who will now take the test have completed a large part of their schooling with restrictions and overcome difficulties that are still taken into account when designing the exam. Its consequence is that they are simpler.
Pilot test
Last March, fifty centers from ten communities, Ceuta and Melilla carried out a pilot test aimed at harmonizing the university entrance exams for June 2024, with the aforementioned competence nature.
All the communities were invited to participate but in the end the ones that decided to take part were Catalonia, Asturias, Cantabria, La Rioja, the Valencian Community, Castilla-La Mancha, the Canary Islands, Navarra, Extremadura, the Balearic Islands, Ceuta and Melilla, that is, all except those governed by the PP.
CSIF, the majority union in the public administration, did not like the latest Education decision either, in whose opinion it is one more example of the instability of our educational system; “It seems immoral to us that our 2nd year high school students start the course without knowing what the 2024 test will be like”.
“We ask politicians to have a high vision so that they leave Spanish society alone from their political troubles”, in the words of the person in charge of Education of CSIF, Mario Gutiérrez.
What will the test be like in this course?
Assessment subjects:
- They will deal with the general subjects of the block of core subjects of the 2nd year of Baccalaureate of the modality chosen for the test and, where appropriate, of the subject Co-official Language and Literature.
- Students who want to improve their grade may take an exam in at least two optional subjects from the block of core subjects.
Test Length:
- There will be a test for each subject and there will be a single exam proposal with several questions.
- Each exam will last 90 minutes and there will be a break between consecutive tests of at least 30 minutes.
Type of questions:
- Preferably, the tests will be contextualized in environments close to the life of the students: personal, family, school and social situations.
- There will be open and semi-open questions that will require critical thinking, reflection and maturity. Multiple choice questions may also be asked.