The Selectividad is leaking everywhere

BarcelonaThe procedure for calling for selectivity – short and shallow – is flawed everywhere. In this year's tests, First, it was said that spelling mistakes would only deduct marks on Catalan language and literature exams; then, seeing that these mistakes would inevitably also be present on history exams or any other subject, perhaps even math, they said they would lower the mark. in any subject; and then, seeing that it would all end in disaster, they said they wouldn't count for much anywhere, or not at all, because...

Until recently, these tests were based on effective and unchallengeable knowledge—perhaps except in the case of philosophy. Seeing that students were graduating from high school knowing very little, the country's renowned educators invented a procedure based on "competences," the exact nature of which no one knows. Is a plumber competent who comes to fix a faucet and leaves it leaning as before? Is a carpenter competent who makes a table with only two legs? Would a potter be competent who makes glasses that make the water flow?

Now, very few people argue that the level of knowledge of our high school students is very low, which doesn't mean the level of our teachers is. What's low is the intellectual level of the educators who guide the main teaching activities. For example, given that there's a subject called Catalan language and literature -No Catalan language and literature–, they have not made any effort to introduce into the curriculum The reading of world literature translated into Catalan is a key factor in the country's success. (We've said this more than once; we regret the repetition, made out of a desire to increase the country's readership.) Just as the teaching degree will always be important and necessary, the pedagogy degree could disappear and nothing would happen; better yet: everything would be better. It's the active teachers who know how things should be done.

Considering, on the other hand, that if it were necessary to grade the entrance exams fairly and equitably, more than half, perhaps 70%, of those taking the exam would not achieve a score of 5 out of 10, the examiners have conspired with the regional government, the institutes, and the universities to score points, which will become an ally of illiteracy.

In the not-too-distant future, this outcome is foreseen: they will give away compulsory secondary education, high school, and many other degrees. know, almost nothing. Who knows if ignorance doesn't work in favor of economic progress? That's Trump's idea, and perhaps one day it will be ours too.