He Congress of Deputies has definitively approved This Thursday, May 23, the Law by which the Higher Artistic Education and the organization and equivalences of professional Artistic Education are established, the first Government bill approved by Parliament in this legislature.
The plenary session of the Lower House has debated and voted on the amendments incorporated during the process in the Senate and has rejected ten of the changes introduced by the Upper House, where the Popular Party has an absolute majority. Among the amendments incorporated in the Senate that have overturned Congress, one registered by Vox and supported by the PP stands out, which established the powers of the High Educational Inspection.
This amendment established that “corresponds to the State, through the High Inspection of Educationguarantee compliance with the powers attributed to it in matters of teaching and observance of the applicable constitutional principles and precepts, in particular those related to equality between all Spaniards and respect for Spanish as the official language of the State, which all they have a duty to know and a right to use.
“There is a paradox that the artistic world and those who work for it are very loved by all of society, but real recognition has not always been enough and has not always been fair. We hope that with this law we can repair, at least in part, this insufficient recognition,” said the Minister of Education, Vocational Training and Sports, Pilar Alegría, during her speech in the Plenary Session of Congress.
The minister has recognized that it is a “basic law that requires a lot of regulatory development, the organization of teaching, teaching bodies, educational centers and many other issues.” For this reason, she has shown her commitment to ensure that these developments are made “with the same climate of dialogue and consensus” that has existed during the processing of the norm.
“The entire educational community has been asking us all for agreements for a long time, for us to agree, to agree on improvements for the education of our country, even if it is through partial agreements. With this law we have shown that it is possible, that it is possible. This demonstration and this example shows us that it has been worth it“, Alegría celebrated.
The law, which will affect 140,000 students and 14,000 teachers, provides for the creation of new courses such as Audiovisual Studies and students of Higher Artistic Education will now be recognized as university students when receiving a scholarship.
ORGANIZATION OF ARTISTIC TEACHINGS
The law establishes that Higher Artistic Education is organized into Music education; Dance; Dramatic Art; Conservation and restoration of cultural property; Plastic arts; Design; Audiovisual Arts, Video Games, Animation and Cinematography; Creative writing; and Circus Arts.
Until now, a student who completed a higher degree in Artistic Education if he wanted to work in a philharmonic in a European country had not only to prove the Spanish degree, but also had to provide a document issued by the corresponding autonomous administration, something that already It will not be necessary when the rule comes into force.
The text seeks to equate Professional Artistic Education with the National Catalog of Professional Qualifications, that is, with the new Vocational Training system. also opening the possibility of recognition and accreditation of these skills to workers in the sector.
It also proposes four new teaching bodies (of professors and professors of Higher Education; and of professors and professors of Professional Education), in addition to the Workshop Teachers of Artistic Education. The integration will be voluntary and there will be a transitional calendar to do so.
With respect to teachers, this law allows, as Minister Pilar Alegría highlights, an organization “Much clearer and much more organized” than what existed and there are also possibilities for teachers to promote professionally “in the best way“.
As for students of these disciplines, the norm recognizes their right to access these studies, as well as their participation and representation, and seeks to equate the scholarships of Higher Education students with those of university students. In this way, Higher Artistic Education students will now be recognized as university students when receiving a scholarship.
STUDENTS CAN GO ON STRIKE
The new rule allows students to go on strike. Specifically, the article on rights related to academic training includes a new right for students that will allow them to go on strike, a right that was already included in the Organic Law of the University System (LOSU).
Another novelty of the new law is that dual formulas are established. Thus, a young person who is studying Conservation and Restoration of Real Estate can establish an agreement with a regional government or with the Ministry of Culture itself so that they can do internships, for example, at the Prado Museum or in different museums in Spain.
The Higher Artistic Education Law also establishes that the centers ““they will have more pedagogical and organizational autonomy” and they will be able to associate with each other to create ‘Campus of the Arts’.
During its processing in the Lower House, the parliamentary groups have agreed to include in the law the creation of a Basic Statute for Higher Artistic Education Students.
After the entry into force of the law, the Government must approve a Statute of the Student of Higher Artistic Education, which will apply to all students of Higher Artistic Education in Spanish public and private centers.
Furthermore, the PSOE has taken advantage of the processing of this norm in the Congress of Deputies to modify, through an amendment, the Organic Law of the University System (LOSU), with the aim of making its implementation more flexible.
THE PP HAS LEFT “IDEOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES Aside”
During his turn to defend the amendments approved in the Senate, PP deputy Óscar Clavell assured that his party has left “ideological differences aside” and has not mixed politics “in a law so demanded by the sector.” with the aim of improving the initial text. “We have done so even voting in favor of the opinion in the Upper House“, has said.
Among the PP amendments that have been incorporated into the text, Clavell has especially highlighted that Higher Artistic Education includes the teachings of Video Games and Animation, “a thriving and consolidated sector that requires qualified artists”and also the Circus Arts, “included for the first time in a law.”
Although he has acknowledged that the law has improved as it passed through the Senate, “which has made it possible to iron out many of the problems it had, including spelling mistakes,” Vox deputy José Ramírez has warned that “it continues to be a project that has not been able to overcome the defects it already had from the beginning.”
For his part, Sumar deputy Jorge Pueyo has celebrated that this law is the first that Parliament approves in this legislature. “It is a law that comes out because there has been social dialogue with the sectors and the investiture partners have also been taken care of”he assured.