• Socialists launch campaign to build consensus on reforms to education law
• PP threatens Constitutional Court appeal to stop any changes to legislation
Spain’s Socialist party (PSOE) launched a nationwide campaign on Wednesday designed to overturn key elements of the controversial LOMCE federal education law passed in 2013 by the absolute majority then held by the conservative Partido Popular (PP) in Congress, calling for replacement of the highly unpopular law with new legislation developed with the input of Spain’s educational community and agreed to by all opposition parties.
The LOMCE legislation (Ley Orgánica para la Mejora de la Calidad Educativa) includes the controversial outsourced re-testing (reválidas) by private firms of primary, secondary and high-school students to ensure that they meet strict academic standards for advancement. Anticipating conflict with opposition parties in Congress over the reválidas, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced in October the temporary suspension of the re-testing for secondary and high-school students.
Last week opposition parties in Congress won a vote to introduce reform of the LOMCE into the legislative agenda. The PP has asked the executive commission of Congress to reverse its decision to allow LOMCE reform legislation to proceed and threatened to appeal any legislative action by the current Congress to reform the LOMCE to Spain’s Constitutional Court (Tribuna Constitucional).
The campaign launched by the PSOE Wednesday calls for full repeal of the reválidas and the Socialists say they will introduce initiatives in all 17 regional assemblies across Spain in support of creating a full Congressional subcommittee to develop a national “Pact for Education.” At the same time, the PSOE says it will be promoting events with Spain’s education community to discuss the proposed LOMCE reform and distributing information to students, parents and teachers throughout Spain to put forward its proposals for replacing the LOMCE with a new law reached through consensus and negotiation.
► Read More in Spanish at La Vanguardia and EcoDiario…
