The EBAU – Baccalaureate Assessment for University Access – is already here and along with it, criticism is beginning to emerge regarding the fees that students must pay in order to take the exams. Its price, which depends on each autonomous community, is between 60 and 180 euros, a disbursement that not all families can afford. For this reason, from the State Confederation of Student Associations (CANAE) they denounce this situation and demand a reduction in the cost of the tests. Andrea G. Henry, president of the student organization, affirms that “these are tests that we cannot not do, if we want to go to university we have to do them, so they should be free. If we continue putting obstacles and obstacles, many people will fall by the wayside.” From CANAE they also highlight the lack of specific aid so that families with economic difficulties can face the payment in a more comfortable way.
An educational inequality
The debate about fees has been on the table for several years and many teachers, students and associations have denounced it. In 2020, Rafael Fontán, a professor at the José de Churriguera institute located in the Madrid town of Leganés, promoted a collection of signatures requesting the exemption of fees for those who could not pay them.
Fontán met a former student who confessed that she did not appear at the EBAU because at that time her family could not afford to pay for the Baccalaureate degree -indispensable to appear for the tests- as well as the fees for these. And next to her, 10% of her student body couldn’t afford it either. For this reason, from this Madrid institute they also decided to create a ‘bank’ in which the teachers made voluntary contributions and from whose funds came loans or donations for students with difficult economic circumstances. “For the most part, the people who cannot afford to pay these prices are students from a vulnerable socioeconomic level, whose families are forced to choose between paying the EBAU or making the purchase of the month,” says Antonio Amante, vice president of CANAE.
Different rates for each autonomous community
Another of the main points denounced from CANAE is the inequality that exists between the prices of the rates according to the autonomous community in which they reside. For example, a student from Aragon pays twice as much as a student from La Rioja. Aragón is the community that presents a higher price in its fees: its students must pay 185.95 euros to appear at the EBAU. In second and third place are Castilla y León, with a price of 183.06 euros and Murcia with 150.75 euros. In contrast, Galicia and Cantabria are the cheapest, having to pay 63.67 euros and 71.09 respectively. In addition, the differences do not only occur in the price, but also in the structure of the tests. In some communities the payment is fixed, however in others it is paid for each exam of a specific subject that is carried out. From CANAE they point out that this measure motivates some students to take fewer exams to pay less, which means a lower possibility of reaching the maximum grade. Although the EBAU in the Canary Islands costs 76.12 euros, last year the Ministry of Education, Universities, Culture and Sports of the Government of the Canary Islands approved a resolution exempting students from families with few economic resources from paying this fee. . This is the only Spanish community that has approved this type of measure to help students with economic difficulties. Regarding it, CANAE shows that the rest of the autonomies should begin to study this type of measure and implement them as soon as possible to address this gap in the system.
