By using their parliamentary majority, the proposed education reforms known as LOMCE, the Ley Orgánica para la Mejora de la Calidad Educativa, nicknamed “Wert´s Law” after the Minister of Education, José Ignacio Wert, have finally been approved by the Spanish government, with numerous amendments having been adopted, but without the support from the opposition, the majority of teachers and hundreds of thousands of protestors.
Both the UPyD and Foro groups abstained from the vote, whereas the entire opposition voted against it, with the votes of the ruling Partido Popular swinging it to their favour. A statement from the main opposition group read, “By Congress processing Wert´s law substantially unchanged, and without the government listening to the educational community, they set out to ratify their intentions to repeal it by the current parliamentary majority”. The law will now be passed to the Senate for approval.
Since the first moment the changes were proposed, a wave of protest flooded through the country. In late September, as schools returned for the next academic timetable, 100,000 people took to the streets of Palma de Mallorca in protest over reforms, in a campaign dismissed by the Balearic government, who stated that the 100,000 people who marched on against reforms “do not represent the people but a very personal choice”, stating that the number of people “only account for 7% of the population, whereas in the last regional elections, the PP received more than 18% of the electorate.
Prior to the vote, the Minister of Education, José Ignacio Wert, warned that the changes are necessary, explaining that for every child who has to repeat a year of education, there is a 7,000 euro bill put on the state. Since 40% of students have repeated a year of compulsory education at least once by the age of 15, the overall cost of a cohort of students who have gone through the school system is 24 billion euro, “It is a scourge on educational and very inefficient use of resources”, he said.
The parliamentary opposition collectively claim that LOMCE will be a “short law, the most ephemeral in history”, with Wert still arguing the intention to “reduce dropout rates”.
Whilst still battling for independence, the political groups of Catalonia are outraged by the decision, as one of the reforms puts the Castilian as the primary language in education, which the Catalan government considers to be “an attack on the state and shared multi-linguistic competences”, given the preferences that the region put towards their own language.
Both the Catalan and Basque representatives stated that on the assumption that the legislation does become approved by the Senate, Lomce would be adopted but it will not be implemented effectively in their communities.
“We will not allow further jeopardizing of social cohesion and stealing the future of our children. In Catalonia we will not apply the law”, said the ERC deputy minister Joan Tardà, continuing that “Franco tried to kill our language and failed. You will too”.
Whilst once again taking to the streets of Torrevieja, teachers, educators, parents and children all protested the change again on Thursday evening, but with a sombre mood clear as their faces told the story that their campaign may now be over, as it has been clear that the government’s agenda is far above listening to the teachers and the opinions of those who chose to put them in the position of power.
Filed under: http://www.theleader.info/article/40982/
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