On April 23, at 9:06 in the morning, the teachers of the subject of artistic drawing received an email informing of this agreement from the Management Committee of the PAU (formed by Conselleria staff and expert teachers). In total, 106 teachers of the Valencian Association of Drawing Teachers have denounced by letter to the ministry what they consider an injustice a few weeks after the test.
The artistic drawing exam has traditionally consisted of reproducing a still life that was physically brought to the classroom, and doing it with charcoal. The main drawback is the change in the size on the paper, which goes from 50 x 70 cm to 35 x 46 cm. Another of the changes is that the exam will be done on "normal" tables instead of inclined tables where the students could stand up. In addition, the still life will no longer be taken physically, and now the students will have to reproduce a photo, which makes the test more complicated.
Without enough easels
The reason behind this decision is made clear by the general coordinator of the PAU through a message sent to teachers. As he explains, "in some of the Valencian public universities there are not enough drawing tables or painting easels to be able to take the exams on equal terms for the entire student body." To solve this, they have decided that all students should take the exam on "normal" tables.
The proposal of the teachers is that the exams should be taken in several shifts to try to ensure that all students have enough easels, an answer that the Management Committee of the PAU has not answered at the moment.
Challenge the test
To understand the difficulty, Roman explains that "the fact that they have changed our paper at such short notice is comparable to a science student who, weeks before taking the exam, is told that he must take the exam with different formulas and without adequate material." In other words, this is a profound change.
But the key to the change is that, according to the drawing teachers, it would be illegal. The teachers take advantage of the decree that regulates the management committee of the Pau and that specifies that "at the beginning of the academic year of conducting the test, the management committee will make public the organizational criteria, basic structure of the exercises and qualification criteria".
For the teachers, if the exam is modified, it could be a reason for challenging the test, which "condemns students who take the exam for this course in the Plastic Arts and Design Baccalaureate modality, to not have equal opportunities with other modalities, in addition to being a mandatory subject in the general phase and directly affecting the university entrance mark," they denounce. They judge that this resolution is "unjust and arbitrary" in addition to "causing a very serious prejudice to the students".
No time to prepare
Another criticism, both from teachers and students, is that the change leaves them without any time to prepare. "This modification, days before the test, when there is no longer time to prepare for it, could mean a clear violation of the right to education."
The problems, moreover, do not come only because of the change, but because they consider that it makes the test more complicated. Teachers charge against the fact of using normal tables: "Drawing on an easel is not a whim. The viewing angle has to be the right one. If we draw a photograph on a table, sitting on it we are seeing the foreshortened model," they criticize.
They continue to claim that, when working horizontally with the requested technique (natural carbon) "the coal dust that is released, when it does not fall, accumulates on the sheet, dirtying the drawing. Mastering the technique with the required change of position is a much longer process than the scarce 10 hours that may remain, of a subject scheduled in 140 hours," they claim.
Parents and students have already begun to mobilize after the news, and the teachers request at the end of their letter that the modification of the exam "be immediately withdrawn". In addition, they demand that "the organizational criteria and the basic structure of the exercises published at the beginning of the course" be respected.