The beginning of September has always been a decisive date for many students who are examining the subjects that did not pass at the end of the course. They have spent the summer studying and they play it all these days before "back to school".
But this will be the last year for the September exams in La Rioja, Comunidad de Madrid and Castilla León. From next year 2017-2018, students from these communities will be examined before holidays, so summer will only be for enjoyment.
A measure that other CC.AA have already taken
La Rioja, Madrid and Castilla León come to join other communities such as the Basque Country, Navarra, Cantabria, Valencian Community, Extremadura and the Canary Islands where this system has been operating for years.
In these communities there are no September exams for ESO and Baccalaureate students, although not in all regions it works the same and each brand its own guidelines:
Cantabria, Basque Country, Navarra, Valencia Community and La Rioja (as of 2018): advance the September to June call for ESO students. And in all of these, except in Cantabria, it is also advanced for high school students.
In Madrid, the call will be advanced from the next year for ESO and first and second year of Baccalaureate.
Canarias only passes the exams for high school students, as do Castilla y León (as of 2018) and Extremadura, although these last two only do so for second-year students.
In one way or another, the students of these communities live the summer without pressure and without studies, enjoying and forgetting books, homework and lessons.
The September call is ahead of June or early July, so that students who need to recover subject matter must be re-examined before summer vacations.
According to Estrella Digital, the director of education of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) defends this measure arguing that the investigations carried out in this regard have concluded that Summer vacations do not favor learning:
“In general, summer vacations are bad for learning outcomes. There is research that shows that students forget a lot of content, so delaying recovery can mean that students are at a disadvantage. "
Meanwhile, Miquel Soler, regional secretary of Education of the Valencian Community - where this measure has been running for five years - states according to the Cadena Ser:
"A priori we thought that the results would be better in September. When we found that this was not the case, also comparing course by course and subject by subject, it is when we decided to keep it since the advantages were greater than the possible inconveniences"
Among the advantages that some professionals stand out when taking this measure, would be:
Continuous assessment of the students, without the break of the two months of summer.
From the last ordinary call in June to the extraordinary one for the recovery, only two or three weeks will pass, so that the students will not forget contents and will be able to reinforce the deficiencies with the help of the teachers.
All students will be able to enjoy your vacations without the pressure of some exams just around the corner.
The cost of some families will be reduced when hiring private teachers or academies for their children during the summer.
The educational staff may leave the following course organized before going on vacation and close the list of students.
Will this measure reduce the repetition rate?
This measure, however, does not like everyone equally and given the high repetition rate of Spanish students, many professionals consider that the advance of the call can only harm.
In addition, teachers emphasize that for students with various suspenseful subjects or for those who have suspended the three consecutive quarters, it can really be complicated to recover everything in just 15 days.
In any case, at the moment there are no comparative studies that help to know if this measure harms more than it benefits or vice versa. For what remains to wait and see how the events unfold, although there is no doubt that on a personal level it is a big step which favors the rest and vacations of the whole family.
Via El País
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