The model of the selection tests prepared by the Ministry of Education, in consensus with the autonomous communities, has received another setback when the final draft was about to be approved by the Council of Ministers. This wording had entailed several adjustments to the design initially proposed by Minister Pilar Alegría, last July, as a progressive adaptation of some of the changes or the postponement of the so-called maturity test. Now, it will be the new central government that comes out of the polls on July 23 that will decide what the decree of the Baccalaureate Assessment for University Access, EBAU (known in Catalonia as PAU), will be. Because there will have to be a "new model", this is how the calendar of the new organic education law, the Celaá law, sets it. Sources from the Ministry of Education and FP emphasized yesterday that the procedure "is paralyzed, but not postponed" and that it is a "gesture of responsibility", since it will be the new government that has to manage it. In the hypothetical case of a change of Spanish Government after 23-J, the decree should be approved even though its content could be modified.
The draft is in the hands of the Council of State, a procedure prior to its approval, which is analyzing it, but when it concludes, the Central Government will not approve it, and will avoid any criticism that it would have raised in the middle of the electoral campaign .
The ministry met yesterday with the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE), which requested a one-year postponement before the elections are held. They asked the Spanish Government to order that, instead of starting the university entrance exams in June 2024 (for students who are currently taking their first year of high school), they should start in June 2025. And give time to settlement of the new curricula in the educational centers, explaining that they were approved months before the school year began.
But the ministry ruled out any delay claiming that the calendar set by the organic law on education requires the adoption of a new model in the second year of its entry into force, that is, June 2024.
In this way, the decree is suspended in its last section and pending the color of the new Spanish Government. In principle, the draft has the consensus of most autonomies, after relevant aspects had been modified, such as the postponement of the maturity test or the reintroduction of the compulsory nature of some subjects. Despite this, the Popular Party defends a unique test for the entire Spanish territory to resolve eventual inequalities. The EBAU is designed by the regional governments, which have transferred competences in education.
If the deadline for approving the new selection model was already fair in terms of school years, now, with the elections of a new Executive and the formation of the Government which may arrive in mid-August, the processing of the royal decree will have to be of an urgent nature so that teachers and students can start the course knowing the models of the exercises that the students will face.
However, the Ministries of Education, Universities and Autonomies are already working on the draft model and in April a pilot test was held in which young high school students from various Autonomies participated. The maturity test, in which the assessment of knowledge of various subjects converged through problem solving, generated numerous criticisms from societies and associations that saw their subject diminished. Finally, it was postponed from June 2027 to June 2028.
The ministry also ruled out approving the Art Education law, which had to be approved by the Congressional Education Committee this week.
