Milagros Tolón, born in Toledo 57 years ago, the new Minister of Education appointed this month by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, was faced with the task of finalizing an educational reform that the Socialists reversed to arrive in the government in 2018, by the branch then responsible, Isabel Celaá, whose ambition was diminished after the mandate of her successor, Pilar Alegría. Tolón replaces Alegría, who left the government (where he was also spokesperson and head of Deportes) to become the socialist candidate of the PSOE in Aragon, whose president, Jorge Azcón, had delayed the February 8 elections.
During the transfer of power, carried out in the afternoon at the ministry headquarters after promising the position for the morning before the King, Tolón was confident that he would manage to obtain fundamental agreements with the autonomous executives and the educational community to launch a program of modernization and improvement. “the quality and equity of the education system”. In announcing his appointment, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, highlighted his capacity for dialogue. You will need it. Autonomy is largely in the hands of the PP, and many have reached agreements with their predecessors. The teaching unions, for their part, expressed their impatience this month and encouraged Tolón to close the major negotiations they have had since the beginning of the year with the government to reform various aspects of the teaching profession.
The new minister shares certain characteristics with Alegría. At the time of their appointment, both were government delegates in autonomous communities with socialist executives whose presidents were not linked to Sánchez (Alegría in Aragon, where Javier Lambán reigned, and Tolón in Castilla-La Mancha, where Emiliano García-Page was from. Both studied the Magisterium (the new minister also became a title in Geography and History).
The new head of Education has also been mayor of Toledo, autonomous representative and in Congress. A department that Sánchez considered this month “fundamental in a subject in which all administrations in our country have competence such as educational policy”.
Change everything
Tolón stands out from Alegría, who launched Education in the summer of 2021 replacing Isabel Celaá, promoter of the current education law, in Lomloe. This was the first step by which the socialists planned to present to the government a vast reform aimed at modernizing the pre-university education system. And they wanted to change almost everything.
The way of teaching and evaluating (the curriculum), from a traditional memoristic model to another based on the acquisition of skills and the knowledge of applying and relating knowledge (skill). The training of teachers at university, their access to professions (oppositions), their integration into educational centers (with more support) and their professional progression (with a more generous professional career organized, in exchange, by incentives). Expand the system, with an expansion of years of schooling articulated around public education, with the creation of thousands of places for children (0-3) and FP. Correct the unbalanced distribution of vulnerable students between the public and the concerted public, by combating the illegal tuition fees that these schools charge and at the same time increasing the funding received by students. Fighting the segregation of children with disabilities in special education centers, sometimes against the wishes of their families, leading the UN to reprimand Spain. And rethink the old Selectivity, with a radical transformation that makes it a test of maturity, among other questions.
Changing the trajectory of the gigantic bouquet that is the education system – 834,000 teachers, more than eight million students and approximately double the number of parents – let’s not say and replacing some of its fundamental elements, is always complex and controversial. The reform initiated by Celaá was marked by protests. From concerted teaching (with the support of the Episcopal Conference), infant education centers (private), special education centers (private and concerted), subject teachers harmed by the new ordinance (or not quite compensated for the losses they had suffered during previous reforms), and supporters of a more traditional and selective model of education (including opposition parties), who predicted an educational catastrophe that has not yet occurred.
Alarm
In Moncloa there was some concern and in July 2021, Celaá, who, in addition to being aware of the educational law, was managing the great educational crisis caused by the pandemic, unexpectedly (also for her) left the government. Pedro Sánchez chose to replace her Pilar Alegría, whose responsibilities at that time were very far from management. She became a government delegate in Aragon and, from her first days, she realized that just before moving to Madrid, she was getting involved in the fire campaign. The new minister was given the task of pacifying the educational world. And he succeeded, which, from a certain political point of view, was a success that led Sánchez to expand his responsibilities, first within the party and then within the government. However, the spirit of educational transformation with which the socialists reached the Executive contradicted itself in substantial ways. A loss of momentum in which it was also noted that Alegría began to have more open fronts, especially as government spokesperson.
As Professor Emeritus of the University of Murcia Juan Manuel Escudero says, another Spanish executive has repeated the cycle of consuming an enormous amount of energy to modify the educational law to reach the second, perhaps more decisive, stage of transformation of what actually happens in school.
Joy maintained her ambition in creating public spaces for Vocational Training and 0-3, which could be considered one of her great achievements in this position, as well as other initiatives aimed at reducing educational inequalities, such as scholarships and the PROA+ program. We have carried out without major innovations several of the initiatives that were underway when we started (their CVs, the FP Law and the Artistic Enseñanzas). I’m reducing someone else’s reach (like Selectividad). And I kept everyone else in a box. Only last year, at a pace so slow that it demoralized the unions, was part of the teacher reform addressed, leading to the reduction of student-class ratios and the teaching schedule of teachers, which will be achieved through a bill whose approval is uncertain. The new education director has to do a lot straight if she wants to walk on ponds.
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