New Socialist Government To Undo Conservative Religion In Education Law, Again
(02/07/2018) Constitutionally, Spain is a non-confessional state but the Church always champions Religion against Something Else.
(Originally published: 02/07/2018)
The new socialist Education Minister, Isabel Celáa, gave an interview to El País on Sunday. She was asked what would happen with the teaching of religion in Spanish schools. “Religion cannot have any academic value”, she replied: “or count towards [a student’s] average mark […] civic values have to be universal and that means male and female pupils have to study them”. To that end, she announced a new subject “based on civic values and ethics, and it will not be optional”.
This is not the first time Spain has been here. Since Franco died in the 1970s, the education yo-yo has swung back and forth at least five times, in step with the change from conservative governments to socialist ones and back again. At stake is the contentious question of what values should be taught to Spanish children, and whether or not they should be linked to the teachings of the Catholic Church. Should all children be taught the same or should schools and parents be allowed to choose?
There was the Education Law in the 1970s, when Adolfo Suárez agreed with the Church to include religion in primary and secondary education, then the socialist Education System General Order Law (LOGSE) under Felipe González, then the conservative Education Quality Law (LOCE) in 2002, under José María Aznar, shelved when the PSOE won the next election with José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, leading to a new socialist attempt at an Education Law (LOE) in 2006. When Rajoy brought conservatives back to power, the Popular Party passed the Improvement in Education Quality Law (LOMCE) in 2013.
All of them have wrestled with religion—which in Spain has always meant the Catholic Church’s version of Christianity—versus Something Else, which has variously been called Ethics, Values, Religious Facts, Society, Culture & Religion, History of Religions, Ethical Values or Education For Citizenship. Spanish conservatives—in line with the wishes of the Church—have always wanted religion to count towards a pupil’s marks, and socialists for it not to count.
So the new Education Minister’s comments, and the new socialist government’s upcoming education policy, are one more salvo in a never-ending cultural war in Spain. Now the PSOE holds the big guns of government again and can dominate the field for a few years.
Constitutionally, Spain is a non-confessional state. During the Easter Week celebrations this year, shortly before Mr. Rajoy was ousted at the motion of no confidence, four Popular Party ministers—including the Education Minister, Iñigo Méndez de Vigo—went to Málaga to be seen singing the Spanish Legion’s hymn “Bridegroom of Death” as the legionnaires paraded a statue of Christ around during the high-point of the southern city’s resurrection festivities.
“It is a part of our cultural traditions”, said PP spokesman Rafael Hernando shortly afterwards: “It is a very respectable hymn”. When that party announced its education law for 2013, the then leader of the Socialist Party, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, threatened to rip up the country’s agreements with the Vatican.
Parents and pupils suffer from these constant changes. What almost never gets talked about in Spain is mixing the two options together in some intelligent way, some interesting and knowledge-filled mix of History of Religions and Ethics or Values. It is always a struggle between the Church and conservatives—who try to promote one version of one religion—and secular socialists—who try to dissociate values from religion completely. Religious experience, in all of its varied forms and including the rejection of God, has always and everywhere been part of the human experience, and its evolution along with philosophical thought has guided the formation of many of the values we consider universal today.
Pupils in Spain would benefit from the proper, broader study of such matters, instead of these continued swings of the ideological yo-yo.