The quality of governance of the education system. The case of the LOMLOE.

Abstract

In the context of a highly complex social and economic landscape, getting educational reforms right is a crucial part of governance understood as the ability of governments to design, formulate and implement public policies. This work focuses on the quality of governance in the education system. It starts by reviewing the concept of governance and its characteristic features. It then considers the quality of governance in education based on an integrated conceptual model, which is validated through a Delphi process of consultation of experts, and an international comparative analysis. The main results of an exploratory evaluation carried out in 2017 of the quality of governance in the Spanish education system are described next. Finally, the contributions of the LOMLOE (Organic Law 3/2020, of 29 December, which amends Organic Law 2/2006, of 3 May, on Education), legislation introduced in 2020 are analysed and evaluated in the light of the criteria derived from this conceptual model. The main conclusion that emerges from these empirical results is that the Spanish education system has a long journey ahead of it in terms of improving the quality of its governance.