Finally the LOMLOE, in spite of the social rejection it has reaped, has been approved in the Congress of Deputies. We are now facing the process of its application. A time as important or more important as the approval of the law itself.
But going step by step, the first thing we have to do is to see how the subject of Religion has been left in this new legal framework created by the LOMLOE. In fact, it is a framework that we are already familiar with, since it is practically the same situation that we lived in the LOE.
To summarize, the following aspects could be indicated:
- The subject of Religion will not have a mirror subject.. It is a long battle still unresolved. Throughout these years of democracy, several solutions have been given to attend to those students who did not choose the subject of Religion. These students have studied Ethics, Study of Religions, Values... But in other occasions what has been done is that students who do not take Religion do not have any curricular content subject. In the case of the LOMLOE, the line that 'some students cannot be forced to take a subject for the right of others to have it' has prevailed and the Government has opted to leave the subject of Religion without a mirror subject. These students will have to receive the corresponding educational attention that will have to be regulated by each autonomous community.
- The subject of Religion will be evaluableThe grade will not be counted for the average when the records are in concurrence. In practice this has its main consequences in Bachillerato, which is where they mainly enter in competition with other subjects and would vary the transcript. The fact that their grade does not count for the average of the degree and in the access to the university conditions to a great extent the choice of the subject. Students in Bachillerato focus their efforts on achieving the best grades for access to higher education. Under these conditions, students are unlikely to take a subject that is going to require extra effort and that will not help them to improve their average, and they will opt for others that will.
- A study of the non-denominational religious fact is proposed.. It is not specified if it will be as a possible alternative to the confessional Religion class, or if it will be a compulsory subject for all students in some course, or if it will be optional in some of the levels, or even if it will be included within other areas. We will have to wait for the development of the Royal Decrees and their application by the Ministries of Education of the Autonomous Communities to see how this possibility will be implemented.
As we said at the beginning, this approach is very similar to the one we have already experienced in the LOE, with the same defects and disadvantages. As always, the best asset we have in these cases is the professionalism and good work of the teachers who will know how to motivate the students despite the obstacles that the Administration puts in their way.
In conclusion, we point out the LOMLOE implementation schedulewhich will take place from the 2022-2023 academic year. That year, its regulations and curriculum will come into force in the 1st, 3rd and 5th years of Primary Education; 1st and 3rd years of Compulsory Secondary Education; and 1st year of Baccalaureate. In the 2023-24 academic year, the implementation of the new LOMLOE curricular framework will be completed.
Thus, in this academic year 2020-2021 and the following 2021-2022, although some organizational issues of the LOMLOE will come into force, neither the curricula nor the current situation regulated by the LOMCE will change. These two courses will be precisely the time for the creation of the new curricula of the different subjects.
Also this coming year, the new curriculum for the subject of Religion will be drawn up. But, as Michael Ende said in The Neverending Storythat is another story that will have to be told at another time.
Photo: Ben Mullins/unsplash
