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The definitive curriculum of Religion saw the light yesterday after being published in the Official State Gazette (BOE). This, unlike what happens with the rest of the subjects, is prepared entirely by the ecclesiastical hierarchy, who "is responsible for pointing out the contents of Catholic religious education and training", according to the Agreement between the Spanish State and the Holy See on Teaching and Cultural Affairs.
The study plan has been renewed for the approval of the new educational norm, the Lomloe, but known as 'Celaá law' and includes the contents for all stages: Infant, Primary, Secondary and Baccalaureate.
Jesus and the UN
However, in these concepts they appear very similar or rather identical to those used by the Government in the rest of the subjects, especially in Civic and Ethical Values.
This is the controversial issue that 'happens' to Education for Citizenship, which was also highly contested by the educational community. Thus, all the stages mention the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), just as Values does. For example, in the case of Baccalaureate, in the same section of basic knowledge where the fundamental principles of the social doctrine of the Church (DSI) also appear, it indicates that students must "know and value the different global initiatives that seek launch projects for a sustainable future, especially the sustainable development goals (SDGs)”, states the curriculum published on the BOE website. “God's project announced in Jesus Christ, universal brotherhood, provides a transcendent horizon that confirmed our commitment to the objectives of sustainable development and human rights”, says the Primary curriculum. “The curriculum does not address all the topics that could be covered in a Catholic Religion class and has become a hybrid between Civic and Ethical Values and Religion; now the two subjects are very similar to each other”, says a representative of several educational centers with a Catholic ideology.
"Global citizenship"
But aside from the SDGs, the curriculum uses many phrases that are identical to those that appear in the curricula approved by the ministry led by Pilar Alegría. Also in Primary, in reference to one of the skills that students must acquire, the curriculum says: “The gradual acquisition of this skill means having developed autonomy and personal identity; Having acquired values and rules of inclusive coexistence, individual and team work habits; have developed their affective capacities in all the contours of the personality; and having achieved some healthy lifestyle and responsible consumption habits while being aware of their physical and emotional needs”. The care of the planet also appears, very present in the curricula of the Sánchez Executive: “The Catholic Religion area proposes the principles and values of the social teaching of the Church to contribute to the common good, to full human fulfillment and to the sustainability of the planet ”. Later, she mentioned "inequality between men and women" or the importance of "global citizenship." In Compulsory Secondary Education, “intergenerational solidarity” appears; "ecodependency"; "social friendship" or "intergenerational co-responsibility".
More participation
Catholic Schools, the employer of the agreement with more than 2 million schools in our country, said that “the new curriculum contains a novel vision of the subject, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and with current problems. So we would have wanted a greater participation in its elaboration, the possibility of porting from experience, this new approach has defenders and detractors and only time will show a vision of its success, "said Luis Centeno, deputy general secretary of the employers' association. “In any case, he considers that the subject is a fundamental piece to achieve the constitutional objective of education: the integral formation of the person. No one can claim a complete education without approaching religion and the transcendent facet of the person. All this without giving up the very essence of Christianity, as a pillar of our history and culture”.
“Families consider that the theme that is worked on in the curriculum is important but it has too much of a transversal approach, and touches on themes that are already dealt with in other subjects. Therefore, it could have gone deeper into religion itself,” said Begoña Ladrón de Guevara, president of the Confederation of Parents of Students (Cofapa). "In any case, families trust the figure of the teachers who are the ones who transmit knowledge and train our children and we will always defend that the assignment continues to be offered so that families who want to can choose it."
Sources from the Episcopal Conference have defended that “this curriculum maintains, like all the previous ones, the essence of the Christian message and the epistemological source of Theology. Like the previous ones, it has assumed the pedagogical format of the curricular framework, in this case of the Lomloe, and the key competences. And, therefore, the curriculum has combined the essence of what the Religion class is, that is, the Christian vision of life, with a specific contribution to the exit profile of the students. It has also been the result of a participatory process, with which the entire educational community has been listened to”. They add that "this curriculum, in its specific competencies, maintains the Christian vision of the person and of life, of society - which includes the Church -, of culture, and of faith-culture-reason dialogue," reported José Ramón Navarro Couple.
