The objective according to the plan designed by the National Administration of Public Education (ANEP) is to “make teaching more flexible so that education is more inclusive and centralized in the learning rhythm of each student”, where the change of focus is intended that the school years do not work in a compartmentalized manner, but that the subjects and teachers cooperate with each other for the benefit of the student – who will no longer complete years, but “cycles” and “spans”.
What does the reform propose?
The reform will impact the first and third cycle of the Integrated Basic Education (EBI)comprising 1st and 2nd grade of Primary School and 7th, 8th and 9th grade (1st, 2nd and 3rd grade of Secondary up to now) in a period of three to five years.
A central point in the reform is the greater autonomy of the centers, where directors and teachers can evaluate whether or not the functioning of the classroom is changed. While moving within the framework of the educational program, teachers will be able to plan classes in a different way according to the context of the school or high school.
For Primary, a rotation of teachers in the classrooms can be decided —depending on whether one has more knowledge in social sciences and another more in mathematics— or there may also be more than one teacher teaching.
Despite the proposed autonomy, the need for a teacher focused “on what the child knows how to do” Above “the specific content that is taught”, where it is prescribed is that all teachers teach in this way, and for that there will be training.
For 7th, 8th and 9th grades, the change is in relation to what the teachers are going to do in class. The change of name does not imply the permanence in the school until 9th, but the pass to the Lyceum once you finish 6th of school, but it will be called 7th grade instead of 1st. The idea behind this is a gradual transition between Primary and Secondary, avoiding sudden changes.
As regards the assessment, by 2023 there will be no card with a scale from “regular” to “outstanding”. The evaluations will be on the 10 skills that the student must acquire: metacognitive competence, intrapersonal competence, initiative and action orientation, communication, relationship with others, creative thinking, critical thinking, scientific thinking, computational thinking and competence in local, global and digital citizenship.
Regarding teacher training, changes in infrastructure are announced, foreseeing the installation of more teachers’ rooms in urban schools. Likewise, ANEP seeks more frequent meetings of teachers.
For him Basic Cyclethe traditional evaluation from 1 to 12 is maintained in each of the subjects.
One of the biggest changes is that the student can only repeat in 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th, that is, at the end of each cycle. The identification of those students who have more difficulties will be maintained, to continue offering specific accompaniments instead of making them repeat the year.
In the case of Initial educationfrom 2023 the repetition for boys and girls will be removed.
For the grade pass it is highlighted that in 7th, 8th and 9th there will be no more exams. 7th grade students will be able to move on to 8th grade with some subjects still in the approval process, although to attend 9th grade it is necessary to reach a minimum grade of six.
Regarding the new subjects, in the Basic Cycle they will merge some traditional subjects, for example Environmental Sciences (nature, society) in which it joins Geography with Biology, and it will be dictated in 7th and 8th grades.
For 9th three subjects were created: Communication and Society (composition, linguistics and reading comprehension), Contemporary world (history, culture and politics) and Training for citizenship (law with an emphasis on human rights), which was previously Citizen Training. This last subject will also integrate contents that were seen in the matter of Vocational orientation.
The content will be modified for two subjects of the Basic Cycle, computer’s science and Art, distributed as follows: in 7th there will be Art with an emphasis on plastic arts, in 8th there will be Art with an emphasis on image and design, and in 9th there will be Art with an emphasis on literature. In the case of Computer Science, in 7th grade it will focus on digital literacy, in 8th grade it will focus on digital technologies, and in 9th grade it will focus on programming.
In total, there will be 11, 12 and 13 subjects in each year, respectively, including the optional workshop.
The educational reform will introduce the often mentioned projects and workshops. For the former, both in school and in high school, teachers will begin to design interdisciplinary projects.
These projects will be by cycle, that is to say that initially there will be a project that will integrate Initial Education and 1st and 2nd grade of school. An example of a project, related to environmental sciences, could be about renewable energy, plants and light. The resource or implementation of this would be, for example, creating a garden together.
On the other hand, in 7th, 8th and 9th there will be elective and annual workshops. The student must choose between a workshop in the area of science or a workshop in the area of arts that will take place throughout the year. All teachers from each area will participate in these workshops and will be planned in conjunction with the management.
Source: Ambito
