Historians rebel against the acting Minister of Education, Pilar Alegría. The Royal Academy of History (RAH) has flatly rejected the “harmful reduction” that the subject of History of Spain in the new Selectivity and has asked the Government to reverse the design of the university entrance test that will be held next June, leaving the exam as it has been carried out in previous calls. If not, he has warned, this change will have “harmful effects” on young people.
In a letter of allegations to the draft ministerial order, the Academy recalls that “without History” there will be no “critical and informed citizenship”, an “essential” condition for “the realization of the democratic ideals of the nation.”
Last October, the Government made a major change in the format of the Eves/Ebau of this course. Until last year, all students had to take a mandatory History of Spain exam. But, from June 2024this subject loses its status as a “general core” subject for 2nd year of Baccalaureate and becomes a matter of “option.” This means that students can choose between taking the Selectivity exam between History of Spain and History of Philosophy. It is no longer mandatory to do the first test.
It is about returning to the situation that existed a decade ago, when the LOE of the PSOE of 2009. Different teachers remember that, at that time, students mostly chose History of Philosophy instead of History of Spain because it was easier for them, which caused them, previously, in Baccalaureate, to be disinterested in the second subject, being aware of that he was not going to enter the exam that decided his access to the university.
It is a “substantial” modification that the material undergoes, according to the RAH. And “extremely harmful to its public consideration and educational estimation, to the extent that it presupposes that future Spanish university students will no longer have to demonstrate a sufficient minimum of knowledge about the History of the country to which they are a part.”