“It is said that a child of ten in Andalucía has the knowledge of a child of eight or nine in Castille y León.” The statement was made by an opposition Partido Popular speaker complaining about the “deterioration of education” in Spain.
The words came from Isabel García Tejerina during a TV interview the day after the Education Committee in Congress agreed that the syllabus for older pupils should include Philosophy and the History of Philosophy. It also said that the subject of Ethics should become compulsory.
“It is said that a child of ten in Andalucía has the knowledge of a child of eight or nine in Castille y León.”
Unsurprisingly, Tejerina’s comments raised hackles in the Andalucían education sector. She later clarified that her criticism referred to the “bad management” of the socialist PSOE party which has controlled Andalucía for four decades.
Regional president Susan Diáz responded to the criticism by claiming that Tejerina was “insulting” the region with a “supremacist disdain” and “total ignorance of this land.” Pointedly, Diáz also asked the Partido Popular if it would ever, “grow tired of insulting Andalucíans.”
