"REVÀLIDES"

About two weeks ago, many high school students were in strike to protest against the called “revàlides”, that the Government wanted to implant for next year. Those are exams, which have to be taken at the end of ESO and Batxillerat, and that students need to pass in order to carry on studying. The strike had an effect on the Government, and finally they withdrew from his position and declared that the “revàlides” would be modified and taken down as the concept they were at the beginning. At the end of ESO, it will be just a diagnosis exam, to know the student's level; and in Batxillerat, it will replace the current Selectivitat (PAU).

Even though they have been finally removed, I would like to give my opinion about the “revàlides”, just as if they were still going to take place.

First of all, I think it's unfair that you have risk it all in just one exam. If you pass the subjects of Batxillerat, in principle, it means that you have the level you need to have, so there's no point in making you take an exam that, if for any reason you fail, won't allow you to keep studying. We can all have bad day and do a bad exam, but it doesn't mean we don't have the level that is required. However, although doing a bad exam in Selectivitat can also be prejudicial for you, it doesn't force you to stop studying and to be out of chances.

And the same happens with ESO, if you have been passing all those years, and you have passed all the subjects, why shouldn't you be able to do batxillerat?

Approving the “revàlides”, means that there won't be Selectivitat anymore, so the way to get into university will be taking an exam directly in the university you want to study. In my opinion, that's not practical. When they finish Batxillerat, a lot of students don't have 100% clear what and where they want to study. A lot of them are guided by their results in Selectivitat. Depending on the mark they get, they will be able to get in a degree or not, so once they know the results, the choice becomes easier. And the same happens with the universities: a lot of students maybe have a vague idea of where they want to study, and

they normally permamently decide after knowing the results, and after knowing in which universities they can get in. So having to decide a degree and a university in order to go there to take the exam, it's a lot more difficult. Adding the fact that maybe you won't pass that exam, so you should probably take more exams at other universities, which is more work, while Selectivitat is only one exam for each subject and then, after the results, it's easier to choose. Although I don't totally agree with Selectivitat system, it is much practical and it's better than “revàlides” system.

After declaring that they would remove the “revàlides” they considered at first, the Government talked about some changes in Selectivitat exams. The main change, which makes PAU exams more silmilar to the idea they had of “revàlides”, is to make the same exam for all the country. Currently there is a different model of exam for each autonomous community, but they talked about removing that and making only one model for all the

Spanish students. I don't agree with that neither, because even though there are things that are important for all the students in the country to know, there are other things that are only important in specific communities. For example, in Catalonia, it's important the catalanism topic and it's necessary to dedicate time explaining it to the students. But this topic is not as important in Extremadura, for example, and teachers there can mention it and explain it briefly, but they obviously won't dedicate as much time as catalan teachers do. That's why I think it isn't a good idea to have only one model of exam for all the country.

But luckily, it seems that this change won't be carried out at the end.

Fortunately, at the end, the “revàlida” in ESO won't have any effect on the students' grades, and the one in Batxillerat will be practicly the same as Selectivitat (I find quite stupid and illogical to change it, if practically it will be the same, but well this how they do the things in this country), which I'm happy about, because I think “revàlides” were such a bad idea.