Spain

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Country in a nutshell

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.

Spanish territory also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the African coast, and two autonomous cities in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla, that border Morocco. With an area of 504,030 km², Spain is the second largest country in Western Europe after France.

After serving as a granary of the Roman Empire, much of Spain was later conquered by a Muslim people, the Moors. Christian kingdoms gradually rolled back Muslim rule, completing this Reconquista in 1492. Spain became the leading world power, with a global empire on a scale and world distribution that had never been approached by its predecessors and a legacy today of over 400 million Spanish-speakers worldwide.

Napoleon's invasion of Spain in the early 19th century triggered independence movements that tore the empire apart and left the country politically unstable. In the 20th century it suffered a devastating civil war and came under the rule of a dictatorship, leading to years of stagnation. Democracy was restored in 1978 and the country has subsequently experienced a cultural renaissance and steady economic growth. Spain is now a constitutional monarchy organised as a parliamentary democracy and has been a member of the European Union since 1986, and NATO since 1982.

Education in Country

Mainly sourced from Eurydice

The education system in Spain is organised into mainstream education and Enseñanzas de Régimen Especial (specialised education). Primary education (6 to 12) and compulsory secondary education (12 to 16) correspond to basic education, which consists of ten years of free and compulsory schooling for all pupils. Mainstream education comprises:

Pre-primary education (Educación Infantil): it is the first stage in the education system and it is non-compulsory. It is divided into two stages: the first one, up to the age of 3, and the second, from 3 to 6 years of age

Primary education (Educación Primaria): it is the first compulsory stage of the system. It covers six years of instruction, divided into three two-year cycles. It is normally completed between the ages of 6 and 12.

Secondary education In the Spanish education system, secondary education is comprised of compulsory secondary and post-compulsory secondary. The former - Educación Secundaria Obligatoria (ESO) it is divided into four courses and it is ordinarily completed from the ages of 12 to 16, it covers four school years and must be completed after finishing primary education. Successful students are awarded a Secondary Education Certificate, which is necessary for entering further optional education as is Bachillerato for their University or Formacion Professional (Vocational Studies).

Post-compulsory secondary education includes two options: the two-year Bachillerato (form 16 to 18), and intermediate vocational training ciclos formativos, the duration of which varies between one and a half or two years. Secondary education also includes artistic professional Music and Dance education, intermediate professional Sports and Plastic Arts and Design education, which belong to enseñanzas de régimen especial. This also covers language education. This provision, although not regarded as part of secondary education, belongs to Enseñanzas de Régimen Especial, which may be started at the age of 16 or 14 if the language to be studied is different from the one studied during ESO. Enseñanzas de Régimen Especial are non-compulsory and structured into different levels and degrees leading to different qualifications and certificates.

The vocational training is also a common possibility after ESO or after the Spanish Baccalaureate. There are two different types of programs: Middle Grade Training Cycles (Ciclos Formativos de Grado Medio), which have the ESO diploma as a requirement, and Superior-level Training Cycles (Ciclos Formativos de grado Superior), which have the Spanish Baccalaureate as the principal requirement. After completion of the Superior-level Training Cycle, students are entitled to direct entrance to several related University degrees (source wikipedia)

University education: Once students have finished their Bachillerato, they can take their University Entrance Exam (Pruebas de Acceso a la Universidad, popularly called Selectividad) which differs greatly from region to region. University in Spain is organised into three cycles, namely Bachelor, Masters and Doctorate, with variable duration and a minimum required number of ECTS credits.

Further and Higher education

Colleges in Country

There is no post-secondary non-tertiary education in Spain, apart from vocational training Superior-level Training Cycles (Ciclos Formativos de grado Superior), which have the Spanish Baccalaureate as the principal requirement and are part of Formación Professional No Reglada. After completion of the Superior-level Training Cycle, students are entitled to direct entrance to several related University degrees

Education reform

Schools

(mainly sourced from Euridice and European schoolnet “ Spain-country report on ICT in education”)

The latest law reform in the Spanish System is the Ley Orgánica de Educación (LOE), dating from 2006, and it builds on the previous law, named Ley Orgánica de Ordenación General del Sistema Educativo (LOGSE), from 1990. The LOGSE radically restructured the Spanish educational system prior to University education, as it raised the school-leaving age from 14 to 16, among other things. The LOE retains the system introduced by the LOGSE but tries to establish the legal framework for improving the quality of the system by addressing the new challenges facing Spanish society. In particular, it addresses the challenges of a more heterogeneous student population and more developed regional control in all autonomous communities, which by 2000 had all been given full responsibilities in education. It also strives to align the national educational objectives with those established by the European Union, which aims to achieve a leading position for Europe in our present international knowledge society.

The following points are priorities for education:

1. A National Political Agreement on Education among all political parties to guarantee the legal stability of the system in the long run as well as across the territories of different Autonomous Communities.
2. To lower the drop-out rates in the compulsory educational levels (pupils under the age of 16).
3. To promote quality in education while preserving an inclusive system with a strong emphasis on

economic aid to compensate for social inequalities.

1. To promote vocational training through an increase in quality and social recognition and through flexible schemes that allow students to enter the system and transfer credits easily.
2. To enhance the use of ICT in schools by means of the plan Escuela 2.0 http://www.ite.educacion.es/es/escuela-20) which is aimed at transforming the way we teach and learn.

The LOE and the royal decrees which develop it have being gradually implemented, starting in the academic year 2006/07 and finishing in 2009/10. Within the LOE framework, it bears mentioning that the Ministry of Education and the Autonomous Communities approved in 2008 the 'Plan para Reducir el Abandono Escolar' (Plan for the reduction of early school leaving), aimed at reducing the still high early school leaving rates to half between school years 2008/09 and 2012/13. The following measures are among the ones approved by this plan:

• To increase the offer of places in initial vocational qualification programmes (PCPI)
• To increase the offer of intermediate vocational training, Plastic Arts and Design and Sports Education, in order to fully meet the demand of this education.
• To offer PCPI students who do not hold the Graduado en Educación Secundaria Obligatoria certificate the possibility of taking a personal aptitude test to access intermediate vocational training.
• Likewise, to offer intermediate vocational training graduates the possibility of enrolling in advanced vocational training.
• To promote reinforcement programmes, such as the reinforcement, guidance and support programmes, in order to increase the number of ESO graduates. Likewise, measures will be launched for young people between 16 and 22 years of age to take reinforcement and extra classes in order to obtain the Graduado en Educación Secundaria Obligatoria certificate in the minimum possible time.
• To extend and reinforce counselling departments, in order to give students advice on the decisions they have to make at post compulsory levels. Moreover, guidance and monitoring services will be promoted for young people who left the education system with no qualification.
• To develop teacher training programmes on techniques to make the most of pupils’ potential, as well as techniques for early diagnosing difficulties, educational attention and monitoring students at risk of early school leaving.
• To create support resources for teachers and other stuff involved in the educational attention of low achievers at risk of early school leaving.
• To promote measures that enable parents’ attendance at meetings with their children’s teachers.
• To create family support centres, or 'schools for parents', to promote a higher involvement and monitoring in children’s education, as well as the cooperation of the administrations with the parents’
• associations.
• To promote new technologies in all spheres of the education system, especially for unqualified people under 25, in order to promote the offer of distance and part-attendance courses.
• To promote an education-work culture in which holding at least the Graduado en Educación Secundaria Obligatoria or an initial vocational qualification prevails for the access of young people to employment.

Some other new aspects which should be mentioned are the implementation of the ‘School 2.0 Programme’ and the ‘Social and Political Pact for Education’. In September 2009, the Cabinet passed the ‘School 2.0 Programme’, an educational innovation initiative aimed at implementing the digital classrooms of the 21st century. The plan envisages that, for the 2009/10 academic year, 392,000 students and 20,000 teachers in more than 14,400 fully digitalised classrooms in all Spain would have a laptop they can use to be better educated. This programme will be developed through agreements between the Autonomous Communities and the Ministry of Education. Its objective is the transformation, in the next four years, of the traditional classrooms of the 5th and 6th years of primary education and the 1st and 2nd years of secondary education into digital classrooms equipped with interactive whiteboards and wireless Internet connection, where teachers will have laptops and each student will also work with his/her own laptop. The ‘School 2.0 Programme’ is based on the following principles:

• Digital classrooms. Equip students and educational institutions with ICT resources: laptops for both students and teachers and digital classrooms with standardized efficient equipments.
• Guarantee Internet connectivity and interconnectivity in the classroom regarding all equipments and facilitate Internet access from students’ homes during special hours.
• Ensure teacher training in technological, as well as in the methodological and social aspects of the integration of these resources into daily teaching practice.
• Involve students and their families in the acquisition, custody and use of these resources.

As regards the ‘Social and Political Pact for Education’, from the beginning of the 2009/10 academic year, the Ministry of Education has held a series of conversations and meetings with the Autonomous Communities, the educational community, social and political groups, as well as the Sectorial Committee, with the main aim of providing the education system with stability regarding regulations. The Ministry of Education has drawn up a document with 104 specific proposals for action which constitutes the basis upon which work is to be continued. The following proposals should be mentioned:

• The Pact has a clear and determining horizon: 2015-20. It is not only a pact for 2020, but there must also be an explicit commitment on the immediate measures to be taken. There must be an annual proposal which includes the specific measures to be taken, so that they are also linked to a report and an economic commitment.
• The commitment to citizens that possible present and future changes on regulations which might be adopted regarding different questions which might be agreed will require a parliamentary majority of two thirds.
• An improvement in the funding of Spanish education
• The objective that all the population between 0 and 18 is receiving education.
• A greater flexibility in the education system. A greater permeability between the different educational levels, both vertically and horizontally. One of the key elements where this rigidity is to be eradicated is the last stage of compulsory education.

The preparation of specific measures for vocational training to constitute a comprehensive training and a key instrument in order to move towards a new sustainable economic model.

References

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