First Impressions

Before launching straight into a discussion of a particular theme, I’d like to give you all a general overview of the educational system in Spain, highlighting a few aspects that will be relevant in later posts, as well as a general impression of my experience.

Education in Spain is compulsory until age 16, and is divided into primary (ages 6-12) and secondary (ages 12- 16). Secondary school is also called ESO, or escuela secundaria obligatoria. Even though it’s obligatory, students can elect to attend a formacion profession basica, which is a basic level vocational school. After ESO, students can choose to continue secondary school with bachillerato (essentially university preparation) or instead go to a formacion professional (vocational training.) My school is a secondary school and includes ESO and bachillerato. Many of my friends teach in FP’s and their subjects can range anywhere from airplane mechanics to autopsy classes.

My school has been accused of being posh, which might be the case. I’m the only fulbrighter at a school in central Vigo, and coincidentally the only one whose school has an IB program. IB, or international baccalaureate, is a quite rigorous educational program. The students in IB English, on average, have extremely high levels of English— some are near native levels and many will graduate and attend universities outside of Spain. Generally, I get the impression that my school has a high level of English across all levels, though I also know that many parents also pay for English tutoring outside of school.

My school also has “bilingual sections,” which consists of two sections of around fifteen students each who take additional subjects taught in English—in my school’s case, these subjects are music and art. At first, I assumed this was equivalent to a ‘gifted program,’ and that the highest achievers in English courses would be awarded placement in the program, but that’s not the case. To gain admission to the program, students need only sign up. My teacher once commented that she hated when students acted like the bilingual section was ‘better,’ as there are students with far higher levels in the non-bilingual sections, they just chose not to participate. In other words, the English courses are the same across bilingual and non-bilingual sections— they receive the same tests and instruction, though bilingual sections benefit from smaller class sizes and more attention from the head teacher. Though I see non-bilingual sections occasionally, my primary students are the 2nd and 3rd ESO bilingual sections—I see both 3rd ESO sections three times a week in English, Music, and Art, and I see the 2nd ESO sections in English and Music. The English department and section teachers are also afforded more freedom in designing these courses. For example, only the bilingual sections complete projects—in my school’s case these were writing a series of newspaper articles and adapting a play into a performance. They also get the most access to a language assistant like me, as their non-bilingual counterparts don’t benefit from an assistant’s regular attendance.

Moving to the general Spanish educational system, one thing that is distinct about Spanish schools is that teachers are funcionarios, or public servants. Funcionarios have permanent contracts, meaning they’re essentially guaranteed a job for life. I knew that teachers were public servants, but what I didn’t expect was that most of my teachers would be on temporary contracts. Only one teacher in my English department has a permanent contract and has been at the school for more than a few years. Most of my teachers are only at my school for a year, then they’ll go to another one. This is likely because they haven't passed their opposiciones (public service exam) so are working as temporary teachers. For example, in my first week, my coordinator had to take a permanent leave of absence— his substitute got a call on Wednesday asking her to be at my school on Thursday to fill in. Essentially, whenever there’s a temporary vacancy, for maternity or medical leave, etc, a temporary teacher gets called, receives maybe a day’s notice, and is expected to begin work at another school which could be anywhere in the region. Many teachers who have passed the opposiciones, however, still don’t receive their permanent placement for several years and will be moved from school to school on yearly contracts. For many teachers, however, this period is a necessary evil because, hopefully, one can build experience and get points that will go towards them eventually receiving a permanent placement. And once you get a permanent placement, you have a stable job for the rest of your life. The only issue is that the whole system creates a high degree of teacher turnover, and many accuse the permanent placement of making public servants complacent. Though I’ll go more in depth about this in subsequent posts.

Another thing that has surprised me was the culture surrounding grades and tests. Students are graded on a scale of 1-10, with 5 being a passing grade. The thing that shocked me was how wide the spectrum of grades will be in a given class. For me, in my high school classes, A’s and B’s were the standard, very few students got C’s, and it was almost unheard of to see students fail. To be fair, I went to a private school that definitely inflated grades, but generally in the USA, a B is an average grade. In Spain, 6s or 7s are average, which has some pretty jarring consequences for me. I saw one student take a 0% on an oral exam that was worth 15% of her final grade because she didn’t prepare for it. Her philosophy was that she would likely still pass, so it didn’t really matter if 15% of her grade was gone because all she needed was a 50%. That’s an entirely different philosophy than in the U.S. If a Spanish student and a U.S. student both decided to skip an exam worth 15% of their grade, but got a perfect score in everything else, the Spanish student would be a great student, and the U.S. would be average. In Spain, an 8.5 is a pretty great grade, while in the U.S. an 85% is good, but more average.

Part of the reason is that Spain is far more test-heavy than the U.S. is. The U.S. tends to give more points for participation, attendance, or homework, where in Spain, most of the “big ticket” items in a grade are tests or presentations. Most of those points in the U.S. are “gimme” points—completion means you get 100%, whereas in Spain, it’s quite difficult to get a perfect score on all of your tests or presentations. I also have just noticed that teachers are harsher graders here— when grading oral presentations in the first term, I was giving 7’s to students she gave 4’s to.

Another surprise I’ve noticed is a lack of reliance on technology in my school. None of my students have personal laptops, and they all take notes with paper and pen. My school enforces a very strict no-phone policy, even during break times, and in class, the only acceptable use of a phone is for something like a kahoot. I’ve often found myself frustrated because of my inability to integrate technology use into my lessons.

One interesting fact of Spanish schools is that students and teachers both go on strike. In the first term, we had around six days of strikes. Mostly, the student strikes were in support of Palestine, and the teacher strikes were aimed at public education reforms. When students strike it's considered an excused absence, and teachers aren’t allowed to give tests on strike days— this is different than in the U.S. where students are not justified in missing class in protest and could face disciplinary measures. Further, teacher strikes are usually illegal in most states, a major difference from Spain.

These are just some initial differences that I have noticed in my time here. I wanted to give a brief overview to highlight some of the issues that I will explore in greater depth in future posts. My next post will explore how teacher autonomy is understood differently in Spain and the U.S., specifically noting the autonomy that flows from the teacher’s position as a funcionario.