Education Ministry to cut the amount of school curriculum controlled by regions

With tensions with the regions already high over deficit reduction, the central government risks opening a new front with an education reform that will increase the amount of the curriculum it imposes in schools across Spain.

The draft law, to which EL PAÍS has had access, changes the proportion of the curriculum determined by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport from the current 65 percent to 75 percent in the majority of regions or from 55 to 65 percent in the case of communities such as Catalonia and the Basque Country that have a second official language.

The reform enacts an old election pledge by the governing Popular Party, included in its 2011 manifesto, to ensure a certain amount of common curriculum contents throughout Spain.

In an interview with state television network TVE on Thursday, the minister responsible for education, José Ignacio Wert, said it was “not acceptable” that the current system “ended up providing 17 different education systems.”

The reform will also set exams at the end of compulsory secondary education and the pre-university Bachillerato course; create a new stage within the compulsory secondary education, known as basic Professional Training; support the financing of public single-sex schools and allow administrations to change working conditions at public education centers.

A draft bill of the proposals is expected to be put before Congress in the coming weeks.