Spain’s students to get a passing grade due to coronavirus confinement

Spanish Education Minister Isabel Celaa has announced that the school year will not go beyond June and in the summer there will be several voluntary activities.

No Spanish youngster will fail the school year over the coronavirus crisis, and only in “very exceptional” circumstances will anyone have to repeat the year, the education minister said Wednesday.

All educational establishments in Spain have been shuttered since mid-March when the government imposed a national lockdown to slow the spread of the virus that has now killed more than 18,500 people throughout the country.

With similar lockdowns across the globe keeping an estimated 850 million young people out of school, it has created an “unprecedented challenge” for governments and educators, the UN has said, with authorities now mulling the fate of the interrupted school year.

Some students could still fail specific subjects and get tested for them again in the fall, but no student will be held back a year because of it, with very few exceptions that will require approval from regional authorities.

Students in their second year of Bachillerato, which is prior to university, will not be subject to these guidelines, but they will nevertheless receive an overall passing grade even if one teacher is opposed to it. The national university entrance exams will be simplified this year to take into consideration the exceptional situation.

These decisions affect 8.2 million non-university students forced to do their classwork from home due to the nationwide school closures. An estimated 10% of them do not have home access to the technology required to do online coursework.

A recent survey of over 3,000 school teachers conducted by the University of Granada shows that a majority rejects the notion of a passing grade for everyone without regard for the scores of the first two terms. “The data shows that educators reject automatic promotion because they value effort, personal merit and fairness …. if there is one thing that they all agree on, it is that they want to be fair to their students,” said Fernando Trujillo, who teaches education at the University of Granada and has co-written a study on the impact of Covid-19 on school evaluations.

In a televised press conference, Spain’s Education Minister Isabel Celaa said no child would fail the year as a result of the crisis, and that authorities would provide voluntary catch-up programs over the summer.

“No child will fail the school year because of COVID-19,” she said, hailing the “patience and immense efforts” being made by children, their families and teaching staff in the face of an “unprecedented challenge”.

She said the school year would not run beyond June, when it normally ends and that during the summer break.

“Repeating the school year will be a very exceptional measure which will have to be based on a solid and very well-argued case,” Celaa insisted.

Students would continue studying from home during the third and final term, she said, without mentioning any possible date when schools would reopen.

The announcement came as Spain prepared to extend its month-long lockdown by a fresh two-week period even though officials have said the epidemic appears to have peaked with the rate of deaths and infections slowing.

Unlike in other countries, children in Spain are not allowed to leave the house, with people only allowed out to buy food, medicines or for a medical emergency, although those with dogs are allowed out briefly to attend to the animal’s basic needs.

Some education groups and experts are already asking for schools to remain open this coming summer – if the health conditions allow it – so that students who require extra help can take classes, engage in sports activities and have access to the school cafeteria.

“Many families lack the digital devices and the skills and the cultural background required to help their children with distance education. We are risking seeing a lot of kids dropping out of the system,” said Álvaro Ferrer, a researcher at the non-profit group Save the Children.

Education authorities are planning to hire extra teachers in order to roll out these summer courses, it emerged on Wednesday after Education Minister Isabel Celaá held a virtual meeting with regional education chiefs.

Another proposal involves launching programs during the academic year 2020-2021 to help students with special needs or with low grades get through their subject matter.