What is the Celaa Law and why is it causing so much controversy?

THE so-called Celaa Law (officially LOMLOE) is causing much controversy in political circles and on the streets, but what is it and why is it so controversial?

Isabel Celaa is the current Minister for Education and Professional Training, and she has proposed changes to the education law in Spain, something which always generates serious debates between the government and opposition.

The proposed law will be discussed in Congress today, Thursday, November 19, with such delicate matters as the plan for Spanish to no longer be the lingua franca on the table.

PSOE, Unidas Podemos and ERC, following amendments made to the initial draft, managed to get the go-ahead for the proposed bill, but the opposition PP, Ciudadanos, Vox and UPN are not happy with it. The organic bill will need an absolute majority to go ahead.

Some of the most problematic points are doing away with Spanish as the lingua franca for teaching, the plan to have all schools equipped for students with special needs within the next 10 years or no longer having Ethics as a mandatory subject in the final year of Obligatory Secondary Education.

Others matters which are raising concern are: the plan to make it compulsory for schools to offer religion, despite the grades not counting for university access or scholarships and eliminating the need for taking an alternative subject; students being permitted to go into the next year even if they have failed more than one subject if their teachers consider it appropriate, and the possibility of studying ‘bachillerato’ (high school) in three years rather than two.

Meanwhile, partly state subsidised schools (concertadas) are facing limitations and are up in arms.

If the bill is approved in Congress, it will be sent to the Senate, where it can be amended or vetoed. If it gets the go-ahead it would be published in the Official State Bulletin, but if not, it will have to go back to Congress.

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