Nineteenth century For centuries, although there were royal academies, universities and some local teachers, education was dominated by the
Catholic Church. However, following the approval of the
Constitution of Cádiz in 1812, educational policy in Spain began to be institutionalized. This fundamental law, in its article 369, established a Directorate-General of Studies for the supervision of public education, which was under the authority of the
government of the Crown. Educational policies stagnated during the
Absolutist Six-Year Period (1814–1820) but, the success of lieutenant colonel
Rafael del Riego's coup on 1 January 1820, forced King
Ferdinand VII to restore the 1812 Constitution and the following year the General Regulation on Public Instruction was passed by the
Cortes Generales. This regulation, in addition to distinguishing between public and private education, organized education through three levels: first education (taught in primary schools and consisting of teaching reading and writing as well as elementary rules of arithmetic and catechism), second education (comprising preparatory studies to later access higher studies) and third education (covering studies that qualified to practice a particular profession). This norm also foresaw the establishment of primary schools in those areas with more than 100 residents and one secondary school per province. to 1855, it was part of the
Ministry of Grace and Justice (this ministry also had education responsibilities before 1812 and from 1823 to 1832). The government responsibilities in the field of Education remained within the Ministry of Development for the next 45 years, through the Directorate-General of Public Instruction, which also encompassed functions related to
culture. The directorate was divided into eight departments: Universities; Institutes; Primary Education; Archives, Libraries and Museums; Fine Arts and Public Works; Accounting; Civil Construction; and the Bulletin of Intellectual and Industrial Property.
Moyano Law In the final years of this period, prior to the existence of its own ministry, two important educational texts were approved, the second of which stands out as the most relevant in its field; the . First, in August 1857 Queen
Isabella II gave royal assent to Law of 17 August 1857, which established the general guidelines on which the future Law on Public Instruction had to be approved. Broadly speaking, this law maintained the public-private duality in education, with the former being the responsibility of the State and the latter subject to some State oversight. It also maintained the division of the
education system into three levels, established uniformity in textbooks and the funding system for schools, the compulsory and free nature of primary public education, entry into the public teaching profession through public and competitive exams, and the mandate to define the powers of civil authorities in matters of public instruction and its inspection. Two months later, the Public Instruction Law of 9 September 1857, popularly known as the Moyano Law —in honor of development minister Claudio Moyano, the promoter of the law—, was approved. This new rule, which expanded upon the previous one, was structured through four major sections —On studies; On educational establishments; On public teachers; On the government and administration of public instruction— and more than 300 articles that detailed and expanded the bases of the law of August 17th. . This painting depicts a girls' school. 1901. As for the specific content, the law divided primary education into two levels: elementary and upper education. This education was compulsory from six to nine years of age (with penalties for parents who failed to comply) and free for those who could not afford it. It established
single-sex education; boys and girls did not have to study the same subjects but were instead assigned according to what were considered "sex-specific tasks". Special schools for the deaf and blind were also maintained. Secondary education comprised two courses of two and four years, respectively, and higher education was offered in faculties, higher schools, or professional schools. Regarding the teaching profession, the law stipulated access and requirements for primary school teachers, secondary school teachers, normal school teachers, and professors at secondary schools, vocational schools, and universities. It also established the possibility of female teachers providing elementary education to girls. It also regulated the different types of educational establishments, the population requirements for the existence of each, the method of financing, and included the possibility of enabling
evening hours for
adult education. Private schools, with private funding, were authorized and their studies were valid and equivalent to those of public schools. Finally, the law established the structure of educational government and administration, with the Ministry of Development at the top and a Directorate-Genera for Public Instruction. Likewise, to advise these, it existed the Royal Council on Public Instruction (today known as the State School Council) and a nation-level inspectorate. From this central structure, the country was divided into university districts, headed by a university; each province had a Board of Public Instruction and each municipality a Board of Primary Education. The purpose of this law was not to innovate, but to compile existing legislation and it remained in force, without relevant modifications, until the approval of the General Education Law of 1970. The longevity of this law was a source of rejoicing for its promoter, minister Moyano, who, as an elderly senator in 1887, declared before the Plenary:
1886 project The growing importance of education was reflected not only by the approval of several education laws in 1857, but also by a Royal Decree sanctioned by the queen regent,
Maria Christina of Austria, on May 7, 1886, which established the division of the Ministry of Development into a Ministry of Public Instruction and of Sciences, Letters and Fine Arts, and a Ministry of Public Works, Agriculture, Industry and Trade. Despite that the decree mandated that the new ministries would be established on July 1, 1886, this did not materialize until the 1900 Budget Act.
Twentieth century Thus, by virtue of Article 20 of the Budget Act of March 31, 1900, the Cortes authorized His Majesty's Government to reorganize the Development Ministry by dividing its powers. On April 18, 1900, Queen Regent Maria Christina issued a royal decree establishing two new departments: the Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine Arts and the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry, Trade and Public Works (from 1905 onwards this department was once again known as the Ministry of Development). As established in the decree, two were the reasons for the division: first, the Development Ministry had "vast" responsibilities since it went from managing a budget of 15 million
pesetas in 1846 to one of almost 81 million pesetas in 1900, and they were "heterogeneous" thus trying to "provide the means for them to be managed promptly and successfully, and to be addressed in each branch with unity of thought and with the intensity of attention that such a delicate task demands".
Peace stage (1931–1936) In the first two years of the young republic, the Ministry of Public Instruction focused its efforts into establishing a Single or Unified School, which had been defended for decades by important figures in the world of pedagogy, such as
Lorenzo Luzuriaga. This movement sought to unify educational policy from childhood to adulthood, eliminating educational levels and disregarding the sexual, economic, or social characteristics of students—it was, at that time, a utopian belief to try to unite in school what society divided. In addition to establishing principles already known in Spanish education such as free and compulsory education for the first years of schooling,
academic freedom was recognized and the
secular nature of schools was promoted, granting the State exclusive responsibility for teaching and expelling the Church from education and, in a less aggressive way, private freedom in this area. Furthermore, the right of the
autonomous regions to organize their teaching, as well as to provide it
bilingually, was recognized, and the Council on Public Instruction, called the National Culture Council since 1932, was reorganized. The anti-religious policy caused discomfort not only in the Church, but also among the people, especially during the parliamentary process and subsequent approval of the Law on Religious Confessions and Congregations of 1933. This discontent over the republic's religious policy (known in historiography as the religious problem []), coupled with the enormous cost to the public treasury of financing the ambitious educational reforms of the republican government, and the growing conflict between the central and regional educational administrations, made the republican educational policy unworkable. At the same time, an ideological reform was imposed which, through teachers, oriented education towards knowledge of the war and the promotion of the principles of the republican government. Likewise, teacher training was reorganized to fulfill these tasks, and history teachers were required to "review historical facts in order to rectify those traditionally accepted concepts and judgments that involve injustice", as well as examine "the texts used in primary schools, to correct the many errors they contain", and economics teachers were required to teach the fundamentals of
Marxism. and the
Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) were established. in 1939 The teaching policy of the dictatorship, similar to the last republican stage, was oriented to be a vehicle for transmitting ideology, so it does not have a relevant organizational development and the only rules are oriented towards guaranteeing a Catholic and patriotic education. In this sense, education becomes religious again, with the
Catholic Church having the right to supervise it, and all subjects are ideologically oriented. Furthermore, the State delegates the teaching task to the Church and the single-sex education is reinstated. Between 1938 and 1949 four new laws were passed regulating different aspects of education, all based on the aforementioned principles. These were: the Law for the Reform of Secondary Education (1938), the Law Regulating the Organization of the University (1943), the Law on Primary Education (1945), and the Law on Industrial Vocational Training (1949). Through Law 35/1966, of May 31, the Department changed its name to Ministry of Education and Science, which would last three decades. According to statements by the education minister
Manuel Lora-Tamayo, it was intended, following recommendations of the
Council of Europe and the
OECD, to enhance the scientific and research work of the Spanish Administration and put it in direct relation with the
tertiary education. An Undersecretariat for Higher Education and Research was also created.
General Education Law of 1970 (center) at an event at the
University of Oviedo. 1970s. Since the 1960s, economic and social changes made clear the need for a major educational reform. This reform came in 1970 with the approval of the General Education Law, promoted by minister
José Luis Villar Palasí. This law, which, among other things, completely repealed the Moyano Law of 1857, restructured the entire
Spanish education system. This law divided it into four levels:
Preschool, Basic General Education, Secondary Education, and University Education.
1978 Constitution During the early years of King
Juan Carlos I's reign, the monarch propelled the
Spanish transition to democracy and in late 1978 the current
Constitution of Spain was approved. This fundamental law established Spain as a democratic parliamentary monarchy and placed education under the complete control of public authorities, making it a
basic right of citizens, with the aim of guaranteeing "the full development of the human personality in respect for the democratic principles of coexistence and for fundamental rights and freedoms". It guarantees the right of parents to have their children educated with the religious and moral formation they desire, permits private education "within the framework of constitutional principles", and promotes the participation of parents and students in public education administration. Finally, it constitutionally enshrines
university autonomy. In terms of its structure, it was also a time of change for the department. During the early years of democracy, the Ministry's powers were reduced for two main reasons: firstly, the
Ministry of Culture was created (1977), which took over the remaining cultural policies—mainly those related to the protection and conservation of historical heritage—and also the
Ministry of Universities and Research (1979), with scientific and university responsibilities; secondly, a process of decentralization of education was carried out in the regions, which created their own departments of education and assumed its management and inspection in their respective territories. Meanwhile, the central government reserved for itself the foundations, coordination and higher inspection of the education system.
LOGSE Before the end of the 20th century, a new education law was passed, the Organic Law on the General Organization of the Education System (, LOGSE). Approved in 1990, this rule extensively regulated preschool education, which became known as
early childhood education (from ages 6 to 12), extended compulsory education to age 16—thus coinciding with the legal working age—, structured
vocational education in two levels, established the obligation to teach the Catholic religion in schools, but made it voluntary for students, and promoted the teaching of
fine arts. It also paid special attention to the inspection and quality of education, creating new regulatory bodies—such us the National Institute for Educational Evaluation—and setting limits on the number of students per classroom and educational level. and was formally repealed in May 2006. This law divided eraly childhood education in two—from 0 to 3 years, with an educational-care character and from 3 to 6 years, with a purely educational character taught by teachers—, it modified the way school principals were appointed—it established that they were chosen after participating in a merit-based public competition, whereas previously they were chosen by the School Council— and
religious education was mandatory but split in two options: confessional or non-confessional, so parents could choose between having their children study their religion or studying religions in a generic way. In addition to the aforementioned disagreements, there have also been disagreements in recent years regarding the government organization. While conservative parties tend to consolidate educational, cultural, and scientific responsibilities into a single department, progressive governments typically divide these responsibilities among different departments.
LOMCE and LOMLOE In 2013 the new conservative government approved a new organic law, the LOMCE, also known as the "Wert Law" after its promoter, minister
José Ignacio Wert. In the same session in which the government majority approved the law, the progressive opposition announced that it would repeal it as soon as the majorities changed. The most controversial aspects of the new law were establishing
Spanish as the
common language for teaching throughout the country, which provoked the rejection of
nationalist and separatist parties, establishing evaluations at the end of every educational stage (suspended in 2016) and giving academic validity to religion. These aspects were repealed by the LOMLOE, the new education law of 2020 —known as "Celaá Law" after minister
Isabel Celaá—, which also formally banned single-sex education in public schools, promoted the presence of the opposite sex in studies with significant majorities of one sex and the teaching of the history of democracy and
sex education. In addition to the partisan controversies, it introduced a substantial change to the
baccalaureate, which was divided into five. In addition to the tradicional Science and Technology and Humanities and Social Sciences tracks, the baccalaureate in Arts was divided in two—Performing Arts and Music, and Visual Arts, Image and Design— and a General Baccalaureate was created for those who did not want to pursue a specific one.
Vocational training , along with national and regional authorities, visits the Vocational Training Centre of the
Universidad Laboral de Gijón. 2021. During the
14th Cortes Generales (2019–2023), the socialist government made a strong commitment to
vocational education, renaming the department as Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, transferring to it the powers in vocational training for employment that were held by the
Ministry of Labour and elevating these responsibilities in rank by replacing the Directorate-General for Vocational Training with a General Secretariat for Vocational Training, with the rank of undersecretariat. To support these measures, in July 2020 the government announced a plan of €1.5 billion to modernize vocational training and accredit the skills of more than three million people, a trend that was maintained in subsequent years. In September 2021, minister
Pilar Alegría presented to the Cortes a bill on Organization and Integration of Vocational Training and was approved by both chambers between December 2021 and March 2022. This new vocational training law stands out for its promotion of
dual education, that is, it combines student training with paid internships in companies, so that those who take advantage of this type of education accumulate work experience from the beginning. Also, in May 2023 the government created the Center for Innovation and High-Performance Technological Development of Vocational Training, a government agency focused on
R&D&I applied to vocational and teacher training. At the end of 2023 the department assumed the sports powers that had previously been exercised by the Ministry of Culture and Sport, and a new Directorate-General for Planning, Innovation and Management of Vocational Training was created. == Organization ==