The Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MEFP) is the department of the Government of Spain responsible for proposing and carrying out the government policy on education and vocational training, including all the teachings of the education system except university education, without prejudice to the competences of the National Sports Council in matters of sports education. Likewise, it is also the responsibility of this Department the promotion of cooperation actions and, in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the promotion of international relations in the field of non-university education.
The Education in Spain is established as a decentralized system in which the regions has powers over the basic and secondary education while the central government establishes the general basis of the system and it is responsible for the tertiary education. Currently, the Education Ministry has no authority over universities because it is the responsibility of the Ministry of Universities. As of 2018, there are more than 550,000 school teachers and more than 7,000 university professors.
The MEFP is headed by the Minister of Education, who is appointed by the King of Spain at request of the Prime Minister. The Minister is assisted by the Secretary of State for Education, the Secretary-General for Vocational Training (with the rank of Under-Secretary) and the Under-Secretary of the Ministry. In addition, in order to coordinate the education system it exists the Sectoral Conference on Education that is composed by the Education Minister and the Regional Ministers of Education.
Since July 2021 the current minister is Pilar Alegría, from the Spanish Socialist Workers Party.
History
Early period
The Ministry of Education was created during the regency of Maria Christina of Austria by 1900 Budget Act. However, the government policy on education appeared time before. Section 369 of the Constitution of 1812 created the Directorate-General for Studies for the Inspection of Public Teaching. Thirteen years later the Directorate-General for Studies acquired the name of Inspectorate-General for Public Instruction and, in 1834 it recovers its original denomination. The Royal Decree of May 13, 1846, change its name to Directorate-General for Public Instruction.
It depended on many departments, going through the Secretariat of the Dispatch of Grace and Justice under the reign of Ferdinand VII; the Secretariat of the Dispatch of Development (later called of the Interior) in 1832 with powers on public instruction, universities, economic societies, schools, Royal Academies, Primary Schools and Conservatories of Art and music; the Secretariat of the Dispatch of the Governance of the Realm in 1835 and Secretariat of the Dispatch of Commerce, Instruction and Public Works in 1847.
Since 1855, these responsibilities returned to the Ministry of Development and stayed that way until 1900. During this 45 years, the Directorate-General for Public Instruction assumed powers on Culture and it was divided in offices: universities; high schools; basic schools; archives, libraries and museums; fine arts and development; Accounting and the Intellectual and Industrial Property Bulletin.
Late period
In 1900, the Ministry of Development split into two ministries, being one of them the Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine Arts. This ministry, that would maintain its denomination until the Civil War, it was driven by prime minister Francisco Silvela who appointed Antonio García Alix as the first Education Minister. PM Silvela had assumed the office a year before and after the disaster of the 1898, it was needed a cut of the government expenditure.
In order to comply with this, in April Silvela reshuffled the Cabinet suppressing the Ministry of Overseas —which lost the sense of its existence after the loss of the last colonies— and the Ministry of Development, creating in its place the Ministry of Public Instruction and of Agriculture.
With the premiership of the Count of Romanones it would begin to shape a model of Ministry with timid regenerationist airs. Initially, it had four sections: Universities and Institutes; First Teaching and Normal Schools; Fine arts; and Civil Constructions and Special Schools, whose work consisted in the promotion of public and private education in its different classes and degrees, the promotion of science and letters, Fine Arts, Archives, Libraries and Museums. It was also part of the ministry the Directorate-General for the Geographical and Statistical Institute.