The interim will take place over three years

This has already been done: the Council of Ministers on Tuesday approved a reform of the (controversial) training opposition. The new system, which will favor current interns over new applicants who have never worked before, aims to comply with Europe and reduce temporary employment in the sector by up to 8% in three years. According to the Ministry of Education, education currently has 23% temporary teachers.

The text approved by the government introduces a modification to the first versions that were leaked: it will continue in favor of the interim, but slightly less. The reform introduced by education envisages two ways of accessing public service: traditional competition-competition, albeit modified according to what has been done so far, to give preference to experience in training, and merit competition, which is open to everyone, but mostly only to them. Those who are currently temporary will benefit and that he / she can be invited only once in each autonomous community.

But the State Council, which assesses the legal compliance of regulatory projects before they are approved, has asked the ministry for a change: the route to access the well-deserved competition is limited to “seats”. [estructurales] Temporarily detained until January 1, 2016, ”explains Education. That is, substitutes (mostly retired teachers) and newcomers should be offered by opposition competition, creating a dual access system criticized by trade unions. While both systems are open to anyone who is not temporary, they hardly have a chance to compete. In fact, inexperienced applicants say they have no option in the contest-opposition either.

The system approved this Tuesday is transitional, in principle planned for three years, including this one, although most autonomous communities have avoided reform this year, so much of the summer opposition will be more balanced with the old system. Temporary and newly withdrawn applicants. Education calculates that by 2024 a total of 125,000 places will be offered.

The problem with temporary groups is that the opposition competition created by the government – and approved by the unions – clearly favors the current gap, according to platforms such as Teacher for Justice. As it does? A dual way to reduce the weight of training at the final mark of the competition to make the accumulated experience more weighty and eliminate the elimination nature of the first theoretical test, which may leave applicants who are later in the competition. Phase, had more merit.

New opposition contest

The number of tests to be taken in an opposition contest is reduced to two. There will be a current one similar to the current one in which the applicant has to work out the topic of the specialty for which he / she is applying and a second one in which the didactic part has to be developed and defended. The main novelty of this part is that the first test will no longer be eliminatory as it is currently happening and all candidates will be able to move on to the second.

To qualify for the further merit competition you will need to go through this first part (take 5 out of 10), which will be considered in its entirety and whose evaluation will not be broken down. There are many more applicants now going to the merit competition which is also changing. Under the current system, each teacher who applies can choose up to ten marks in a variety of ways: accumulating points for training, teaching experience or “other merit”, with a complex system: a training award of up to five points, an experience of seven. And the other one deserves one, so while each applicant may not have more than ten, they have several ways to achieve this.

With reform, exercise weight is reduced and experience is preferred. In the final calculation, the formation weighs only two points, while seven from experience and one from “other merits” are retained. To calculate the experience points, you get 0.7 points per year of internship in the public center in the specialty for which the candidate is applying, 0.35 or other specialty, but also public, 0.15 if you work in a non-public center. Or is from the same level and 0.1 if it is from another specialty or level. There is only one way to get a dozen with this method: by getting the maximum in each section. Previously it was possible to make up for a lack of training or experience by reaching a maximum in another category.

From here the final evaluation of each candidate is obtained by weighing the weight of each part. The opposition will count at 60%, the merit contest at 40%.

As for the planned Extraordinary Merit Competition, the maximum score can be 15 points, of which up to seven are teaching experience, three for academic training and five for other merits, including earlier admission to the opposition. This distribution of points means that although anyone can apply, it is virtually impossible for an inexperienced applicant to take the place.

Ministry and trade unions against inexperienced applicants

The Ministry states in the text that “it is considered that this design, in accordance with the provisions of Law 28/2021 of 28 December, provides an adequate and balanced assessment of applicants’ skills, training and teaching experience. Respect for constitutional principles.

Initially, this reform was supported by trade unions – which typically consist of teachers, intermediate or not, and not willing to do so – which, however, are now regrettable because of the changes. The CCOO explains that last-minute changes “can create major obstacles to the management of these processes (…). “The most urgent thing is that instead of all the vacancies being held under the same procedures as they were in the stabilization process from 2018, there should be two different vacancies, one with a replacement position (retirement) and another with an additional stabilization rate.” Similarly, UGT regrets that “two different procedures are set up to enter the same training body”.

Many applicants, mostly newcomers but also individuals with some experience, denounce the education system as “unfair”. Applicant Maria asserted her complaints: “By secret means it means giving places to mediators. For the inexperienced, as in my case, the maximum score they can aspire to is 7.2 (according to the new system), even if they take the first test. “But with an intermediate decade of experience, even getting five in the opposition (at least to qualify for the competition) with the little extra training he has will already take the place of the most prepared opponent,” he said.