The new manual of the Cervantes Institute to obtain nationality includes errors about the institutions and laws of the country
It is the ‘Manual for the preparation of the Constitutional and Sociocultural Knowledge Test of Spain’ best known in the world of foreigners by its acronym, CCSE, and it is the Bible for the thousands of foreigners who every year aspire to obtain Spanish nationality . Every year, the Instituto Cervantes is in charge of preparing this manual and posing some 300 multiple choice questions so that candidates for citizenship can prepare that exam on which, in many cases, their future will depend.
But this year, that document that has just been published at the beginning of December and that will be the one that will be used in the tests carried out throughout 2022, is full of errors in the so-called “solution”, the ‘on template line ‘to correct the tests with which foreigners practice.
The errors, which have been located and reported by the legal advice platform on immigration ‘Legalteam’, appear in the solutions of at least three of the five sections in which the manual is divided (Government, legislation and citizen participation; Rights and fundamental duties; and Spanish Society).
The first gazapo is that of question 1,043 of the first block in which the exam asks for the current President of the Government and offers three options: Mariano Rajoy, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and Pedro Sánchez. The correct solution, according to the Cervantes Institute is Rajoy, option a.
“High school”
Another outstanding ruling also in the first block is on the Magna Carta. “The Spanish Constitution is … a) an essential law, b) part of another law, c) a secondary law,” is the question. And the correct answer that the manual indicates to the students is c.
In the second block, the Cervantes Institute solution assures foreigners that it is “false” that in Spain “primary education (from 6 to 12 years) is compulsory and free.”
Another of the questions in which the manual lies is the question called 5.005, from the last block. “The driving license is issued in … a) the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT), b) the National Police, c) the Civil Registry.” And the correct answer says the Instituto Cervantes is b.
But undoubtedly the most striking false information that appears in the solution of this 2022 edition of the CCSE is that of the question numbered 2.014, from the second block: to the statement that in “Spain there is the death penalty”, Cervantes urges foreigners to press the “true” key.
The errors found by ‘Legalteam’ appear in the usual online tests, although in the version for the visually impaired, also available on the web and with responses on loudspeaker, those kits have not been sneaked in.
The Constitutional and Sociocultural Knowledge Test of Spain for which this manual is prepared every year costs 85 euros and consists of 25 multiple-choice questions (3 closed-answer options), or true / false. Foreigners have 45 minutes to correctly answer 15 of the 25 questions to be declared fit. In addition to the other bureaucratic, residence or rootedness requirements, applicants must also pass a test of knowledge of Spanish (System of Evaluation and Certification of Spanish Diplomas, DELE).
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