ESO’s new curriculum eliminates failure and prioritizes thinking rather than remembering

Finally – the centers begin to meet deadlines – the Council of Ministers approved the Lomloe High School curriculum this Tuesday. The new text, which gradually regulates teaching, assessment, promotion and quality, will enter into force in the institutions from September 1st and 3rd of September at ESO and from 2nd to 4th from the following year.

The new curriculum introduces significant innovations compared to previous versions: failure is no longer a fixed criterion for deciding to repeat the course, subjects are redistributed but ethics at the level have not yet been restored, nor is computer science (according to teachers) training Which leaves aside the list of content to be studied in exchange for more transversalism and know-how, a movement that many teachers inadvertently reject.

“Knowledge” “Know how to do”

This is probably the main change and what has sparked a good debate among teachers. Curricula include a systemic change to Lomce that will not be new to all teachers – many of them are already working on these more competent settings – but they can catch others at a modified pace. New texts move from content marked to the last millimeter in Lomce, from content lists, to more open curricula in Lomce, where the focus is on what you know how to do with your knowledge.

Critics list their rebukes: content curricula are empty, doors are opened for the use of methodologies, without scientific evidence, demand is reduced, rule three, Roman numerals or Catholic monarchs are not seen (this is probably anecdotal). And the lack of a definition opens the door for each community to do something different, it argues, among other things, against this (nuclear) part of Lomloe. “It’s a miracle to write an ESO physics curriculum without mentioning Newton,” the professor of the subject showed.

The stop limit is not passable

This change is somewhat difficult because it offers an astonishing title (“Education’s the limit of course failure”), but what it really does do is give nature a letter of what is already being done in many monasteries: simply put, the teaching staff decides if they are ready. No student promotion based on daily practice, beyond any specific failures.

The teaching team will assess on a collegial basis whether the student has achieved the skills and tasks of the degree and, consequently, whether they can continue. In any case, those who have passed the studied subjects or directions or have a negative evaluation in one or two subjects will be promoted.

The new curriculum also seeks to reduce the high repetition rate of Spain, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) country with the highest repetition rate in secondary school: almost 9% compared to 1.9% in secondary education. Thirty OECD countries, reports Efe. Continuity in the same course will be considered as an exceptional measure, so it can be used only once in the same course and a maximum of twice during the compulsory education.

And ethics?

Students at ESO will have at least seven compulsory courses per course (Biology and Geology and / or Physics and Chemistry, Physical Education, Geography and History, Spanish Language and Literature, Foreign Language and Mathematics) plus a “at least one” course. Plastic, visual and audiovisual education and music that communities will have to search for. Among the major innovations of this stage is that now Technology, which adds the surname “and digitization”, must be mandatory for at least one course from ESO 1st to 3rd.

Also at this stage, already in the fourth year and to be selected as an “elective subject” (until now it was not offered), there is a subject of training and personal and professional orientation, which, according to the Ministry, offers “an approach to human beings from disciplines such as psychology, anthropology and sociology.” , Which analyzes and approaches it from an additional perspective. This subject contributes to the knowledge and training of personal and social skills necessary for participation, creation and development in human groups, both in the personal, social and academic fields, with a professional and professional foresight for the future.

Ethics also remained behind the scenes, which PP removed from second-hand and the PSOE promised to restore, although the Spanish Philosophical Network insists this is not the case. For the ministry, this is a matter of semantics: will there be a subject of values ​​that encompass these questions; Philosophers deny that this is not philosophy.