He Department of Education has risen to the challenge this Thursday of the barrage of criticism, especially from the teaching staff, who has received the decision to eliminate, starting next year, the mandatory readings of Catalan and Spanish Literature in the selectivity exams.
As explained by her own Minister Anna Simó in a thread of tweets this Thursday – not yesterday, Wednesday, when the news broke -, instead of having specific readings, broader lists of works will be transferred to the addresses and it will be the faculty who will have to choose a minimum of two Titles. Even so, what is certain is that, starting next year, There will be no specific questions in the selectivity exam about compulsory books, as was the case until now. “The centers will have autonomy to select the works or to create new itineraries. Therefore, the mandatory readings do not disappear, will be chosen from the centers“, Simó pointed out this Thursday, despite the fact that the document sent to the centers this week literally says that “there will no longer be mandatory readings”
Guidance
The counselor has also specified in her X account that the directorates will receive “guidance on how to work on the readings before finishing this course.” “Currently, examples of exams with correction rubrics and a guide that explains how to work on readings in Baccalaureate have already been published, with examples of itineraries and learning activities,” the counselor continued, despite the fact that this newspaper spoke yesterday with several teachers. who regret precisely not having received that information. Information that, of course,or appeared in the information document on the subjects of Catalan Language and Literature of the PAU agreed between Universitats and Educaió sent to the centers, in which the readings of the literature modality subject (optional subject) were specified.
Beyond the minister’s comments, in an interview on Catalunya Ràdio also this Thursday, the secretary of Educational Transformation, Ignasi García Plaja, has tried to justify the decision in that it will allow “young people to have a favorable attitude” towards literature and will promote analysis and teaching by competencies. The objective, he added, is that the students relate genres, topics and authors with other artistic manifestationsand not that a book, or its summary, arrives to answer some questions to check if it has been read.
García Plata has explained that this change is the result of the new, more competent resumes. The objective, she has insisted, is for students to relate literature with other arts and for it to be “attractive” to have “more student readers.” With the mandatory readings for selectivity, what happened, according to her analysis, was that there were students reading a summary to answer questions aimed at checking if the reading had been done and not if it had been understood.
New selectivity
The secretary has assured that texts by classic authors, such as Mercè Rodoreda or Salvador Espriu, will continue to be included in classes, but he has insisted that the important thing should not be to “force” Espriu to read, but rather to “motivate” the student to want to read. reading it.
As to the new PAU exam modelswhich will be applied to next year’s call, García Plata has acknowledged that they still do not have them, but we are working jointly with the Department of Research and Universities.
When it became known this Wednesday that the mandatory readings for the core subject (non-specific) of the Catalan and Spanish language would fall next year, the teachers already came out in a rush to question a measure that, according to them, ends the shared references and leaves the syllabus “too open” and at the discretion of the teacher.
