The Spanish Organic Law for Improvement of the Quality of Education (LOMCE) stumbles along. The central government is putting the final touches on a real decree that will specify the conditions for the title of Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO) and the A Levels. The LOMCE contemplated the implementation of external examinations, commonly known as the revalidations (final exams). Once these final exams have been discarded, a new normative framework must be found. And that new scenario brings a novelty: it will no longer be necessary to take an average final mark of 5 to get the title of ESO. A student can reach his target if he/she passes all subjects except two, provided they are not Spanish and Mathematics, and with the approval of the teaching team. This is called "integrative assessment". Two failing grades in someone´s curriculum can lead to an average mark that does not reach the barely passing grade, but that will be fixed by the next royal decree. The level of demand, as we can see, aims low.
"These comings and goings prove the need for a great educational pact, effective for at least twenty-five years," Education Regional Minister Genaro Alonso said yesterday, who presented at a press conference the new program of dual Vocational Training and academic results of the 2015-16 academic year in Asturias.
High promotion level
It is necessary to remember that the end of stage tests will continue being present in the ESO and the A Levels, although their results won´t affect the file or the title of the student. There will also be an examination after the sixth year of Primary Education, which will have a diagnostic value - more of the school than of the student, and in general terms, of the educational system of each community. In the A Levels, it will be necessary for the student to pass all the subjects to complete his/her stage.
The Regional Ministry of Education chose a few days ago the primary schools and secondary and high schools that will participate in the end-of-term tests (sixth grade of primary education and fourth grade of ESO) in May. They make up one-third of those operating in Asturias. The rest will start in the next two courses.
The appearance of the regional minister Alonso Megido and his directors served to inform and assess the levels of promotion in the different stages of education last year. Primary Education takes the cake, where 97% of the students managed to promote. In ESO the percentage drops to 88.3 points. In both cases, according to Education, the percentages are the best in the last decade.
In the A Levels, the title is reached by 83% of the students. 76% of those who begin the Vocational Training finish it, and 72% when it comes to Bachelor´s Degree. The Director of Academic Organization, Francisco Laviana, acknowledged that in the titles of Higher Vocational Training "we have an improvement", but without forgetting that they are "higher studies that are not simple with two thousand teaching hours". Asturias has the second highest title rate in Higher Vocational Training in Spain after the Basque Country, and the best in Middle-Grade.
