Left trying to indoctrinate Spain’s pupils, says opposition

SPAIN’S Left-wing government has been accused of imposing new textbooks in order to indoctrinate children with feminist and anti-colonial views.

Schools will follow the Socialistpodemos coalition’s reformed curriculum in classes from the autumn term.

Exercises that confront the damage caused by the Spanish empire and invite pupils to debate the role of women in ancient societies have prompted an angry response from the Conservative opposition.

A philosophy textbook exercise asks students to consider whether Spain should apologise for abuses during its conquest of the Americas. It uses the 1552 account of the conquest of Mexico by Bartolome de las Casa, a Catholic bishop, who describes the massacres of indigenous tribes – and survivors enduring “the harshest servitude that men or beasts have ever known”.

Translated as: Are we Responsible? it notes the modern view that Spain must compensate nations for extracting wealth and causing suffering.

“It is an absurd and insidious question,” Alfredo Alvar, a modern history professor from Spain’s state research council, told the newspaper El Mundo. “Should Italians apologise for what Rome did,” Prof Alvar asked.

Isabel Díaz Ayuso, Madrid’s conservative regional president, has announced that her government will carry out an audit of new material to prevent “indoctrination in the classroom”.

“All books with sectarian material will be removed,” Ms Díaz Ayuso said. As a counter-measure, her government is distributing a documentary that describes Spanish imperialism as a “globalisation” that benefited indigenous people who became Spanish citizens.