No to a bespoke funding model, yes to a bespoke teaching career

A study by ESADE on resilient schools highlights the need to provide stronger incentives for teachers. / AI-generated image.

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Felipe J. de Vicente Algueró

The Community of Madrid has announced new regulation developing a highly significant area: the promotion of the professional career of public secondary school teachers, particularly with regard to access to the corps of senior secondary school teachers (the Spanish catedráticos), the highest rank within public secondary education, and to the professional recognition of these civil servants. The teaching career is established in the state framework legislation (the Organic Law on Education), but it is the Autonomous Communities that hold the powers to develop it.

All education experts agree that the quality of teaching is closely linked to the quality of teachers and to professional incentives that both stimulate their work and attract talented professionals to the profession. A leading expert in education policy, Ismael Sanz, has acknowledged this in his studies on the influence of teachers’ working conditions on the teaching–learning process. Francisco López Rupérez, another prominent specialist, has long advocated the teaching career—and has developed a specific model for it—as a means of strengthening professional teaching practice. Only a few weeks ago, a study by ESADE, a leading Spanish business school, on resilient schools included among its conclusions the need to incentivise teachers and explicitly referred to the desirability of a structured professional career.

The Ninth Young Business Talents Report: The Teacher’s Perspective, produced by Abanca and Praxis MMT, gathers the views of teachers from across Spain on the current state of education. Its conclusions could hardly be more discouraging. Two thirds of teachers (66.6%) are dissatisfied with their current professional situation. The report reveals that eight out of ten believe their profession lacks social recognition, a perception compounded by a weak sense of institutional support: almost 70% of teachers feel they do not receive adequate backing from educational authorities.

It would appear that those responsible for education policy in the Community of Madrid have finally taken notice and are, at least, attempting to reverse this situation by committing themselves to a motivating teaching career structure. To do so, they are drawing on the state framework by giving substantive content to access to the senior teaching corps. This not only acts as an incentive but also encourages teachers to improve their professional practice and training in order to accumulate the merits required to reach the highest rank within secondary education.

The corps of catedráticos, and in particular that of secondary school catedráticos (catedráticos de Instituto), have been fundamental to the Spanish education system. The latter is more than a century old, and among its members have been some of the most distinguished figures in Science and the Humanities. It was a genuine elite teaching corps, ensuring that every secondary school, even in the most remote areas, was staffed with teachers of outstanding quality. The LOGSE (Organic Law on the General Organisation of the Education System, 1990), passed under a Socialist government, abolished this prestigious rank in the name of an egalitarian approach to teaching that ultimately harmed the quality of the system. The Popular Party, with Pilar del Castillo as Minister of Education, later restored the corps, which has remained in place under subsequent education laws. However, the Autonomous Communities—whether governed by the PSOE or the PP—did nothing to develop this powerful professional incentive.

This initiative by the Community of Madrid stands in stark contrast to the situation in other Autonomous Communities governed by the Popular Party. Only Andalusia appears likely to launch new competitive calls for promotion to the senior teaching rank. Galicia and Castile and León did so some years ago, but have since abandoned the practice. The rest have remained silent. A professional career cannot be subject to the vagaries of the minister of the day. It must represent a sustained commitment over time—for example, by holding competitive examinations for access to the senior teaching corps every two or three years—if it is genuinely to function as an incentive.

This asymmetry is striking. A teacher in Madrid knows that a professional career lies ahead. A colleague in Aragon, Murcia, Cantabria or La Rioja does not enjoy this right. And all of these regions are governed by the same political party. The same party that considers a bespoke system of regional funding unacceptable—on the grounds that the model must be fair and equal for all—appears willing to accept a bespoke teaching career. For the Popular Party, all Spaniards, regardless of the region in which they live, are supposed to enjoy the same rights. Yet the right to a professional career—incidentally recognised in the Estatuto Básico del Empleado Público (Basic Statute of Public Employees)—is denied to teachers depending solely on the territory in which they work. Could there be a greater incoherence?

This anomalous situation reveals a striking lack of coordination within the Popular Party. On an issue as important as this, each Autonomous Community goes its own way. The deeper—and more troubling—reason, in a party that aspires to govern Spain, is that it lacks an education policy, or perhaps has seventeen. The Spanish education system is as severely damaged as, if not more than, the electricity grid or the railways. The Young Business Talents report cited above indicates that 54% of teachers believe the situation has deteriorated in recent years. Indeed, for the seventh consecutive year, the number of teachers who consider that education is worsening has increased—a perception corroborated by international assessments.

What solutions are being proposed? There must, of course, be several. However, incentivising teachers through a structured professional career—one that already exists in law and merely needs to be developed—is among the most necessary measures. Moreover, it does not require a change of government: the Autonomous Communities already hold this powerful instrument of education policy in their hands. They simply need to use it—but not selectively.

The United Kingdom has what is known as a shadow cabinet, made up of “ministers” appointed by the leader of the opposition. There is therefore a Shadow Secretary of State for Education, whose role is to scrutinise the government minister. At the same time, this figure acts as the opposition’s spokesperson on education policy, allowing voters to know clearly where the opposition stands. Does the Popular Party have a shadow education spokeperson? Or at least someone tasked with coordinating education policies across the Autonomous Communities it governs? If such a figure exists, they do not appear to have succeeded—even minimally—in eliminating the incoherence encapsulated in the formula: “no to a bespoke funding model, yes to a bespoke teaching career”.

Source: educational EVIDENCE

Rights: Creative Commons