Education paralyzes the new EBAU for "responsibility" before the early call for elections

   MADRID, 31 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Ministry of Education and Vocational Training has decided to paralyze the approval of the royal decree of the new Evaluation of the Baccalaureate for University Access (EBAU), whose implementation was to begin in the 2023-2024 academic year, after the President of the Government , Pedro Sánchez, has announced the early call for general elections and the dissolution of the Cortes.

The Department headed by Pilar Alegría, as sources from this Ministry have informed Europa Press, has decided to paralyze the approval of the decree for "responsibility", understanding that it is "more logical" for the new government to push it forward, whatever it may be. .

The Secretary of State for Education, José Manuel Bar, has transferred the decision to the General Secretary for Universities, José Manuel Pingarrón, and to the rectors of Spanish universities (CRUE) during a meeting held this Wednesday.

Before the end of the Legislature, the Ministry will leave "completely finished" the processing of the royal decree of the new university entrance exam, which is currently in the Office of Regulatory Quality and must go through the Council of State. Although the decree will be ready before the elections, it will not go through the Council of Ministers, so the new government will be able to use it to approve it when it takes office.

The implementation of the new model of the university entrance exam was scheduled for the 2023-2024 academic year so that, after a transitory period, it would be definitively implemented in June 2028.

In the draft royal decree that regulates the basic characteristics of the University entrance exam for the 2023-2024 academic year and establishes the procedure for calculating the entrance qualification, published last February, the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training eliminated the maturity test and the multiple choice questions that were initially planned for this new test.

Likewise, Education increased the time to complete the exercises in the new test, going from 90 minutes to 105 minutes, since, as justified by the Department directed by Pilar Alegría, "the reading of the exercise, its analysis and production are taken into account ".

Another of the changes included in the draft royal decree is that students, at the time of enrolling for the entrance exam, will choose between taking the History of Spain or History of Philosophy exam. In addition, in communities with a co-official language, an examination of their own language is added.

With the aim of testing the new EBAU, the Ministry carried out a pilot test last March in 50 centers in all the Spanish autonomous communities, Ceuta and Melilla, with the exception of those governed by the Popular Party and Aragon and the Country Basque. This pilot test included less memory exercises that reflect everyday life situations.

According to the correction guides for the pilot exams of the new university entrance exam, published by Education, the new EBAU would deduct 0.25 points for each spelling error and the tildes would count as half a mistake.

Thus, in the guide corresponding to the Spanish Language and Literature test, it is indicated that "the grade for each exercise will always be 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, 2, 2.25 or 2.5 points, up to a total of 10 points" and it is specified that 0.25 points will be deducted for each spelling error; accents will be considered as half a mistake, and all other cases (capital letters, foreign words, exclamation marks and question marks) will be counted as a mistake. Also, repeated errors will only discount once.

The guide proposes that, when the student's response can be improved or contains errors, it is qualified with a score of 0.25, for example, when asked to prepare an expository-argumentative text, even if the presentation does not fit "in absolute to the proposed format", has "an extension less than required", does not fit the topic or contains "inadequate, insufficient vocabulary" and with "abundant grammatical errors".

In short, the guide points out that "a joint positive evaluation will tend as long as the text has a minimum of coherence and cohesion, as well as a certain expressive correction".

Despite the request from Spanish universities for a one-year moratorium to take the new exams, the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training ruled out delaying the new EBAU for a year, according to sources from this Department, who clarify that delaying the new test "is not legally viable" because it is set in the Education Law (LOMLOE).

Those responsible for the entrance tests to the University of the 17 autonomous communities warned two weeks ago that it is "unfeasible" to carry out the new EBAU tests by 2024 and demanded a one-year moratorium from the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, petition that the Department headed by Pilar Alegría flatly ruled out.

After meeting those responsible for these exams from all over the country, they stated "unanimously" that the entrance exams "are a fundamental element for the university future of thousands of students" and stressed that "their good preparation and execution depend on their hopes and expectations, as well as those of their families and those of the teachers who train them".

In a statement, the universities throughout Spain stressed that "the exam models and their correction criteria are unknown with sufficient time, as well as the detailed content of the ministerial order that will regulate these tests", for which they consider that "they do not there is material time for the centers to adequately organize a teaching program for the 2023-2024 academic year or for them to provide the previous training of the student body with guarantees".

Along the same lines, the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE) warned that it is "essential" to delay the start of the implementation period of the new model until 2025. "It is unrealistic to say that there is enough time to implement said model in 2024 and the student body that is enrolled in this course in the first year of high school will be seriously harmed," said CRUE.

The institution considers that the normative text proposed by Education "is still insufficient to regulate with the completeness, security and rigor that would be necessary some tests whose social repercussion, relevance and consequences on the academic and professional future of the student body do not need to be underlined" .