The LOMCE as dead end

Abstract

The article analyses the new Education Law in Spain, named LOMCE. It is focused on the budget cuts that LOMCE proposes, taking into consideration the consequences this new law will have on teachers, students and the society as a whole. The article does not miss the current economic weakness of our country and tries to show how these budgetary aspects affect education. It also reflects the possibilities that these new proposals will offer to citizens by establishing a comparison between our educational system and one whose success is proved, the Finnish one. KEY WORDS: Rights to education; Education policy; Free access to education INTRODUCTION The educational reforms obey a policy of austerity from the European Union which consists on reducing the public budget of education within the current Spanish context. The new Educational Law (LOMCE) has caused a generalized refusal leaded by students, teachers and social groups due to the negative effect over the autonomic competences and the teaching training. “A policy of rationalization must not be confused with a policy of non-discriminated reductions” (Gimeno and Rodriguez, 2013). According to Bernal and Lorenzo (2013: 118-120), nowadays, the cuts which are being carried out by the government represent a new privatized model which leads to a general outdated segregation. This reductive process intends to convert education into a business in order to command the public schools under the management of some selected people. This new law is an undercover way to manage schools with almost no support from the government, making the public school loose quality little by little due to the lack of personal and material resources. Therefore, the private and state subsidized school gets favoured while public schools are at risk of being a place where all the disadvantaged people are reunited. This makes schools which receive richer students grow in terms of resources whereas other schools will see decreased their staff. The current crisis which affects Spain should not be an excuse for reducing the educational budget and other investments because of the low economical support that the government is facing and struggling. All these aspects should not be reduced REIDOCREA. VOLUMEN 3. ARTICULO 14. PAGINAS 93-­‐96 94 because they help future generations to overcome past generations, and if we do not invest money and research on them, it will not be possible for them to ameliorate and lead this society to a better promising one. According to Gimeno and Rodriguez (2013: 52), the cuts done by the government of Spain are a sample of proposals which attack the quality and the teachers’ valuation. The salaries of teachers and their rights have been reduced substantially; the teachers’ hours of work per week have been increased (from 18 hours until 21), as well as the pupils per classroom (from 25 students to more than 35), but there has been a reduction in terms of staff and material. Moreover, in many Communities of Spain, there have been reductions in the ongoing training of teachers. One of the reasons of the educational reform, according to the Minister of Education, is to get closer to the Finnish Educational System by obtaining better results in international exams such as PISA. As Bolivar pointed out (2013: 1), instead of basing on outcomes from PISA, we should analyse how the Finnish System is preparing students so well. If we analyse LOMCE proposals, we can confirm that this new law promotes just the opposite of the Finnish System. What Bolivar is wondering is how to transform the current Educational System to another one which can better prepare the youngsters and at the same time guarantying a great education for everyone. The following figure represents the differences between the Finnish and Spanish educational strategies: SPANISH STRATEGIES (LOMCE) FINNISH STRATEGIES Based on competition Based on collaboration Individualization of teaching Standardized teaching and curriculum