Expatica news

Education reforms under attack from all sides

8 November 2005

MADRID — The National Students Union has called a general strike in protest at the Spanish government’s planned reforms of the education system.

In universities across Spain, the union has called for a day of protest against a proposed new law.

Demonstrations are planned in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Valencia, Bilbao, Salamanca and Santiago de Compostela.

The left-wing United Left and teachers unions are set to join the protest.

They want the government to promise there will be more investment in public education, which would mean spending seven percent of the national gross product on education and two percent on university education.

Students have condemned what they claim is a more selective education system.

They also want religious studies to be optional, not obligatory.

Catholic family groups and the Spanish Roman Catholic Church also oppose the new Quality Law for Education.

But these right-of-centre groups, supported by the conservative opposition Popular Party, want religious studies to be obligatory and part of the grading system.

A massive march is planned in Madrid for next Saturday organised by Catholic family groups and the Church at which, organisers claim, one million people will attend.

It is the latest confrontation between the Spanish Catholic Church and the Socialist government.

In the summer, a similar march was held in the capital against the government’s new law to legalise same marriage and gay adoption.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news