Re-writing Religion: Spain's education act

In my second year at grammar school, my class was set an R.E. homework assignment to write a nativity play. My best friend Derek and myself were both heavily influenced at that time by the "I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again" radio show. Under the influence of Cleese, Garden, Oddie and Brooke-Taylor, we thought it would be highly amusing were we to write our plays in the style of ISIRTA. How wrong we were. The R.E. teacher, a Miss Phillipson, was scandalised. My effort was slightly less offensive than Derek's and so I was given the opportunity to re-write it "properly" and received a grudging six out of ten for the revised play. Derek was less fortunate. He had to re-do his in the knowledge that he was going to get nul points come what may.

When it came to choosing our O Level subjects later that school year, it was little surprise that R.E. didn't loom large among our priorities. Indeed, I don't recall it having loomed large among anyone's priorities. Like Latin, it was a subject which, as soon as the opportunity arose to shape one's own personal curriculum, was dropped with the full force and weight of several copies of the Authorised Version being hurled from the top of the science block onto the school playground.

Which, with the value of hindsight normally denied to thirteen-year-olds, was probably a mistake. Latin, one came to appreciate, would have been of value. R.E. would have been, too, in that religious studies in their broadest sense are of value in appreciating fundamentals of cultures and societies (and one uses "fundamental" advisedly in the context of religions).

The greatest mistake lay in believing that one had to be a believer in order to study religion. Not so. Indeed, it might be argued that it is preferable if one isn't a believer. Through not adhering to any particular religious dogma, there may be a chance of increased objectivity prevailing. But what thirteen-year-old is going to now buy into such an explanation or would have bought into such an explanation a few decades ago?

The trouble is that, regardless of whatever broader historical, sociological and cultural aspects are contained in a religious studies curriculum (assuming there are any), as a subject it is perceived as representative of one thing and one thing alone - the established church. For schoolchildren, the church simply isn't cool or relevant. It is something to be rejected.

The Spanish have been losing their religion dramatically over the past 20 years or so, and Spanish youth have been losing it more dramatically than any other age group. This is natural enough, given youthful rebellion, but the taking of religious studies by high-school pupils has slumped to such a level that only roughly a quarter now opt for it.

Faced with this declining interest, the Spanish Government's education reform is to give greater emphasis to religious studies. It will, under the system that the revised education bill sets out, count to the same extent that maths or a language course will. Wert's Law, named after the education minister José Ignacio Wert, will give as much worth and as much weight to religion as it does to English. And there are an awful lot of people who aren't happy that it will. A poll has found that even a majority of practising Catholics disagree with this emphasis on religious studies. The widely held view is that it is a measure designed to serve one purpose - a politico-religious one in cementing the alliance between the Church and the Partido Popular and in advancing the cause of societal conservatism.

However much some would argue, and I would count myself among them, that religious studies, so long as they are broad-based, are of educative value, to place religious instruction on a par with languages, maths, science and technology is an utter nonsense. By doing so, the impression is given of subject choice being somehow bought. And for a country that badly needs to sharpen up its educational act, so to speak, and to encourage innovation, development and entrepreneurship, such an emphasis on religion appears almost perverse. It is a subject worthy of study but it ain't going to improve the country's economic performance.

It is even more perverse that the Partido Popular, perceived as the party that is the friend of business and industry, should seek to establish such an educational measure. It can only be explained, therefore, on the grounds of dogma - the religious dogma of Catholic conservatism, one that many had thought had been consigned to history.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

For What It's Wert: Education law

Education, education, education. In the five co-official languages of Spain, there are three translations of education. Educación, educació, hezkuntza. As ever, it is only the Basques who are in a total linguistic other world. Castellano and Galician are in agreement and so, in a slightly different way, are Catalan and Aranese.

The Galicians having the same word for education as the one in the language the rest of the world finds easier to refer to as Spanish is fortuitous. The Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, is Galician. The Galician people, those who bothered to vote recently anyway, favour Rajoy and his party. The Galicians are a conservative people. They can also number among their most famous sons one Francisco Franco.

José Ignacio Wert isn't Galician. He comes from Madrid, the centre of government and very firmly a centre of Castellano. Sr. Wert is the national minister for education (educación, educació, hezkuntza), culture and sport. He is currently attempting, and succeeding handsomely, in antagonising everyone who has an interest in education, culture and sport, save for those who are educated in Castellano (or Galician), have a culture which is "high" Spanish (which excludes the Catalans most obviously) and who follow football teams rooted near to the seat of national government. Well, follow a football team.

So aware of education and culture is Sr. Wert that he wishes to establish a Spanish mono-culture. And Spanish it most definitely would be. His reform of education envisages far greater amounts of teaching being undertaken in Spanish and not in co-offical languages such as Catalan. Among the various opponents of Wert's Law are FC Barcelona, the Catalonian footballing anti-Christ forever in conflict with the regal, the very Spanish Real Madrid, Rajoy's football team, as it was also Franco's. Barça, more than a club, is living up to its motto. It is fully in favour of Catalan "immersion" in Catalonia's schools and so dead against Wert. (I wonder how good Messi's Catalan is.)

A couple of months ago, Sr. Wert signalled the direction in which he was heading when he announced that it was his government's intention to "castellanize" Catalan students so that they would feel greater national pride. He didn't actually say that he didn't want the students to not feel pride in being Catalan as well, but this of course was how it was interpreted. It was an easy mistake to make because anti-Wert forces had been alerted to an earlier example of Wertism. This was his decision to revive a grant (of almost 200,000 euros) for the Spanish biographical dictionary. It had been withdrawn by the previous government until certain "errors" were corrected, which still haven't been. Specifically, these are that Franco isn't referred to as a dictator and that a large part of the repression under Franco is overlooked.

As always, the spectre of Franco looms whenever Catalan appears threatened. The secretary-general of the CiU in Catalonia, Josep Duran Lleida, has called for Wert's resignation and has described his law as "the worst attack" on Catalan since Franco's death. The CiU may have lost ground after the recent election, but there are more fanatically separatist elements which have gained ground in Catalonia that will take great delight in using Wert's Law as a means to their end of independence.

You do have to wonder why the national government is so intent in pushing Castellano to the detriment of other languages. It knows it will have a fight and it seems happy to pick one. So much, therefore, for trying to create a spirit of unity in the country as a whole in order to tackle rather more pressing matters.

But it could have been predicted that the fight would come, as one only had to look at the Balearics, the test-bed, the experiment for some of what the PP nationally had in mind. However, the desire to push Castellano in the Balearics has been a flop. For the Balearics education minister, Rafael Bosch, who has overseen the failure to achieve a greater degree of teaching in Castellano, Wert's Law is a Godsend. He can blame it when its imposition falters. Or he can use it to reinforce the Balearic Government's own stance on Catalan, though he is prone to coming out with seemingly contrary statements, his latest being that he will "work to the last moment so that Catalan is an official language".

While Bosch is working to the last moment, Sr. Wert will be busy in a different way. Faced with criticism of his law, he has said that he is "a fighting bull that grows stronger when provoked." He really should choose his descriptions more carefully. The Catalonians have banned bullfighting.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.