PP second-in-command 'accidentally' votes to oust Wert as education reform gets final 'Royal assent'
Friday, November 29, 2013 @ 11:41 AM
GOVERNMENT vice-president Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría has voted for education minister José Ignacio Wert to cease his management role of the department – by mistake.
The socialists tabled a motion to censure Wert's schools reform and take him out of the hotseat at the head of the ministry, which was supported by votes in favour from CiU, Izquierda Plural, PNV, the Catalunya-based left-wing republicans ERC, and BNG – as well as the vice-president of the PP.
She realised her mistake immediately, but it was too late as her vote was binding.
UPyD (Union, Progress and Democracy) and the Foro de Asturias abstained, but the votes against by the UPN and the PP government were enough to constitute a majority and see the motion binned – even with Sáenz de Santamaría's having accidentally voted in favour.
As a result, the unpopular education reform has gone through and been given the seal of approval in Congress, a decision which is set to inflame the school and university communities across the country.
Among the aspects of the reform which have been most criticised are plans to deny tuition fee grants to university students who do not achieve 55 per cent in their blanket entrance exam, or Selectividad, even though the pass mark is 50 per cent and reaching this grade means they have not failed and cannot therefore retake the test – and refusing grants towards living costs to anyone whose Selectividad results do not amount to 65 per cent, the equivalent of a C or C+ grade.
The final grade is entirely exam-based with no coursework being taken into account, meaning a student having a bad day when they take the final test could scupper their college career forever unless they or their parents can afford to finance it in full.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com