Bilingual teaching improves Spanish

Study followed 244 students from four bilingual schools in Andalucía

ANDALUCÍA -- The headline is not a mistake. System Magazine, the International Journal of Educational Technology and Applied Linguistics, recently published an article in which it reported that it had followed written and spoken work by 244 13- to 17-year-old students for three years. The report concluded that being taught in English not only doesn't harm their usage of Spanish but does improve the development of their academic expressiveness. The study followed the development of the students' linguistic structure in one language (complex syntaxes and textual cohesion mechanisms) through three academic years, using the textual analysis system called Synlex. The data collected reflect the harmonious development of cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) that appear in English texts. which are then put to use in Spanish. These conclusions contradict the extended opinion that developing profficiency in language hurts the development of others.

Parents charged with son's absenteeism

• Couple faces 'family abandonment' charges for son's continuous non-schooling
• Local Police duties include combating truancy

LA LÍNEA (Cádiz) -- Local Police recently made the first charges for school absenteeism of the current school year. The parents of a boy who was not attending school on a regular basis were charged with 'family abandonment' (translatable to 'neglect of parental duty' in UK terms) and are due to appear in court when the Children Protection Prosecutor in Cádiz studies the case. The Law of Legal Protection of Minors establishes that any person or authority is aware that a minor is not being scholarised, or is continually absent during class time in a school period, and is between during the obligatory school ages of 6 to 16, is obliged to report it to the competent authority (Local Police, School, Council). One of the Local Police's duties is to try to locate and identify a child who is on the streets without the knowledge or consent of its parents or school.

Education in Spain, by Arturo Pérez-Reverte (or, Things Haven't Changed Much...)

He calls various Education Ministers 'imbeciles'

MADRID -- (This article first appeared in the old JimenaPulse blog on February 2, 2008) In his column in a Sunday magazine, El Semanal, Spanish Royal Academician of Letters and highly successful novelist Arturo Pérez- Reverte (photo) has raised a series of matters regarding the education system in Spain. In speaking to a couple of teachers this morning, Prospero got the impression that it has also raised the hackles of the profession. Among other things and in his often magnificent language, he attacks successive governments, Ministers of Education and their ever-changing laws, calling them ‘imbeciles’ in the headline. He bemoans the absence of Latin, Greek, Geography, History and other subjects in today’s curriculum. He ridicules the Councillor for Education of the Junta de Andalucía, whom, he says, has blamed the ‘underdevelopment’ of Andalucía on ‘historical deficiencies’. He also ridicules the Minister for Education (or 'Ministress', as he calls her in his battle against political correctness), who has said that the ‘educational system in Spain not only does things well, but does them very well’. These despite the Pisa Report that places this country’s system very near the bottom of the European Community (and which puts Andalucía at the very bottom). Does this sound at all familiar to British expats? The article is too long to translate here (we make no promises,  but it is possible we will have time later, if there’s any interest among our readers), but we have decided to publish it in Spanish anyway:

Andalucía’s education disaster (MÁS ABAJO EN ESPAÑOL: Andalucía, desastre en educación)

OPINION (by Alberto Bullrich) -- A friend’s son was told to leave his classroom at the village Adult Education Centre the other day. He called his mother in tears; she went to speak with the teacher, who told her that the ‘head office’ had denied the boy, 17, permission to take the exams at the end of the course because he was born in January, after the ‘adult’ deadline of December 31. He would have to wait a whole year, though he was offered other unrealistic alternatives. Fair enough, he was born ‘too late’ so he is not officially an adult yet. But why was he eager to attend these classes?

Spain, among EU countries who most lowered teachers' salaries

SPAIN – A recent report from the European Commission reveals that teachers’ salaries came down between 13% and 17% in Spain between 2009 and 2014, which places her in the lower pay group with Ireland, Romania, Slovenia and Iceland. “It is not surprising that the most significant reductions happened in those countries that were most impacted by the financial crisis,” the document points out, adding that the most severe reductions were registered in Greece, where teachers’ wages dropped by 40%. Spain was in a group where teachers reach their maximum level in the medium-to-long-term period of time that ranges from age 27 in Turkey to 39 in this country. Other reports state that Spain ‘lost’ over 24,000 teachers in two years, and that the Ministry of Education is planning to make changes to the law that will allow it to make further reductions. Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that Spain is pretty much at the bottom of the annual PISA report that comes from the OECD (about which more when the next one comes up).

Only Health and Education to be saved from Budget cuts in 2015

'New La Línea Hospital' still 'under
construction after 5 years' hiatus

SEVILLA – The Junta de Andalucía’s governing coalition (PSOE and IU) last week gave another twist to the draft on the region’s 2015 Budget. While, yet again, the budget is surrounded by difficulties in coalition priorities, principally regarding the central government’s (PP) rule that all the regions’ deficits must decrease by 0.7% and also as the result of the resources coming from the State are down by €600mm, neither party foresees ‘great clashes’ with the accounts, though they do warn that it will be ‘the little things’ that could be the problems. In any case, the Treasury is aiming at ring fencing monies for education and health, so that when the working committees present the negotiated figures for the Junta’s approval, these two items will have the same amount of money as this year, at least. That is the objective, but neither party is willing to give assurances that it will be so. (Ed. Note: Please forgive a large measure of scepticism regarding these promises.)