The University Access Test (PAU) of 2025 will be remembered for the controversy that surrounded the beginning of the academic year in the second year of Baccalaureate throughout Spain. From uncertainty about the changes that had been announced for some time after the entry into force of the new state regulations, we turned to nervousness due to the lack of certainty regarding them with classes already started, which has translated into student mobilizations. all over the country.
But once the exam models of the new University Access Test (PAU) – former EBAU, or selectivity, in colloquial language – are known, there are certain aspects that are at least striking, such as the fact that in Cantabria the references are ignored. historical feminine or the role of women in the different periods of contemporary Spain is overlooked.
And in a provisional list of 40 characters for the subject of Spanish History, the University of Cantabria (UC) has only proposed one woman: Isabel II. The other 39 are men, as elDiario.es has been able to verify:
All this despite the fact that one of the competencies included in the current educational law is the gender perspective. Even so, the lack of visibility of female references is not the only issue that generates discontent among some teachers of this subject, and other complaints expressed about the contents and the method of applying them go hand in hand.
And the objective of the changes that have been applied this year after several moratoriums is to definitively adapt the exam to the LOMLOE educational regulations that were approved in 2020. It was, therefore, about adapting the selectivity to the criteria of the popularly known as the ‘Celaá law’, promoted by the then socialist minister Isabel Celaá, thus leaving behind the postulates of the LOMCE – ‘Wert law’ – approved by the former minister José Ignacio Wert during the mandate of Mariano Rajoy (PP).
The LOMCE focused more on content and the LOMLOE on skills. It is the difference between knowing something (content) and knowing how to apply that something in specific situations (competence). However, according to sources consulted by this newspaper, the changes have been “epidermal” in Cantabria and the exam “continues to maintain the learning standards of the previous law.” “They are rote themes based on events in political history,” said sources say.
As detailed, in the case of History of Spain, the competency model translates into doing more practices of analysis and comparison of historical sources, as well as dealing with socially relevant problems with a historical dimension, with the aim that “the subject helps students to understand the present more.” However, according to teachers of the subject consulted by elDiario.es, this has not been done this way. “There is only one section on population and migration, nothing on the economy, practically nothing on society, nothing on culture and art, and almost nothing on ideologies,” they denounce.
Precisely regarding this, the professors consulted miss addressing topics that the current law incorporates such as suffragism, Spain’s role in slavery in the 19th century, Franco’s repression and exile or the Law of Historical and Democratic Memory. “There is nothing about this,” despite the fact that another of the competencies included in the LOMLOE deals with the assessment of cultural heritage and historical and democratic memory.
No significant changes
The Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Universities of the Government of Cantabria is in the hands of the Popular Party, a party that governs alone and in a minority. However, precisely this week, thanks to the support of the extreme right of Vox, the autonomous Executive headed by María José Sáenz de Buruaga (PP) has managed to repeal the autonomous law of Historical and Democratic Memory approved during the last legislature by the bipartite PRC -PSOE.
According to the sources consulted, the new exam “only introduces a comment from a historical source (image or text) that is confusing and has a topic to be developed that does not ask to relate to the source.” The rest of the exam model, according to the complaint, maintains the 33 topics that structured the previous test that was governed by the LOMCE standards.
“The topics we are going to have to discuss refer to political events and wars, focusing on battles and military victories, while minimizing their causes and consequences,” they lament. “We were already complaining about it and we hoped that with the new PAU they would change it,” say teachers who are dissatisfied with the new model.
This newspaper has contacted the University of Cantabria to obtain its assessment regarding these issues. This institution indicates that “the only thing there is at this time is an internal working document and, therefore, not definitive, which will be discussed on Monday at the faculty coordination meeting.” elDiario.es has also requested the point of view of the Ministry of Education, but has declined to make any assessments on the matter.
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