In 2002, spending on education amounted to 6% of GDP (against 2.3% in 1975), in the budget – 12%, incl. for primary 33.3%, secondary 47.9%, higher 16.9%. Education is predominantly state, four-level: preschool, secondary compulsory (from 6 to 16 years old), non-mandatory special (from 16 to 18 years old), university. According to andyeducation.com, during the years of democratic reforms, the education system has undergone significant reform towards universalization and openness to all social groups, decentralization of management, and most importantly, an increase in the quality of education focused on common European standards for training the workforce. Management of the system of secondary education is transferred to the regional level, preschool and primary education – to the municipalities. The central government retains only the regulatory, controlling and coordinating functions on a national scale, including the distribution of funds for educational purposes. The terms of compulsory free secondary education have been extended to 10 years, including secondary vocational education, which is received by 30% of Spanish students. Overall, 90% of children under the age of 16 are high school graduates (2001). The share of people aged 25-34 with incomplete secondary education in the total number of employed fell to 45%, those aged 20-24 to 15%, while among 55-year-olds this indicator is over 10%. 90%. A system of vocational training and retraining of personnel (virtually non-existent under Franco) has been created for the adult population of the country, including further employment in a new specialty. Vocational training programs are developed at the level of the regional administration in cooperation with local educational institutions, business associations and trade unions, taking into account the real demand for labor. During 1980–2001, the number of student youth increased from 500 thousand to more than 1.5 million (30.5% of the total number of young people), and the proportion of people with higher education in the total working-age population increased from 5 to almost 9%. Having ensured the complete independence of the educational process of universities and their autonomy, the state nevertheless assumed the main share of funding for higher education: 47 (out of 57) higher education institutions in today’s Spain are state-owned, 97% of the total number of student youth in the country study in them.
The share of R&D in GDP increased from 0.5% in 1975 to 1.1% in 2002. The number of scientists in the total number of employees doubled and amounted to 120,618 people. (2000). The number of scientists who received a doctorate degree increased by 33%, incl. in the technical area by 50%. State share in R&D funding 47% (2000). The first national plan for the development of R&D was adopted in 1986; it was supplemented by a number of sectoral plans for the development of science-intensive industries (electronic industry, automation and computerization, new materials, biotechnology). There is a Center for the Development of Technology and Industry. The center’s task is to attract large foreign investors to high-tech industries in exchange for tax incentives and loans, to train top management and engineering personnel, especially in the field of information technology. AND.
Spanish culture is a unique synthesis of Romanesque (Latin), Arabic, European and, of course, original national culture. The main real embodiment of this synthesis is Spanish, which belongs to the Romance group of Indo-European languages with a significant admixture of Arabic words. The centuries-old influence of Islamic culture is no less noticeable in numerous literary (in Spanish folklore) and architectural monuments of Cordoba, Malaga, Seville, Zaragoza, and Granada. Period 12-15 centuries. associated with the appearance of the first national epic “The Poem of My Side”, Castilian literature, the introduction of printing (1474), the creation of original poetic lyrics (famous Spanish romances), the architectural masterpieces of Juan de Herrera, the artistic creations of Luis de Morales and El Greco, reflecting the era of humanism and became the harbingers of the Golden Age of Spanish culture. Its most prominent representatives: Miguel Cervantes de Saavedra, Lope Felis de Vega Carpio, Tirso de Molina, Pedro Calderon de la Barca (in literature), Diego Velazquez, F. Zurbaran, J. Ribera, Bartolome Esteban Murillo (in painting). The Spanish culture of the 19th century, influenced by French classicism and later neoclassicism, is associated with the literary names of Manuel Jose Quintana, Benito Perez Galdos, in painting it was marked by the appearance of the brilliant artist Francisco de Goya, in architecture it left such creations as the Prado Museum in Madrid. At the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. unfolded the talent of the greatest Spanish philosopher and historian of Spanish literature, Marcelino Menendez y Pelayo, who had a huge impact on the next generation of Spanish scientists, social and political figures, philosophers and writers. A decisive role in the creation of the Spanish culture of the 20th century. two generations played: the so-called “generation of 98”, which was spiritually under the impression of the “national catastrophe” of Spain caused by its defeat in the war of 1898, and the “generation of the 30s”, witnesses of another historical tragedy of the Spanish people – civil war 1936-39. The most prominent representatives of these two generations of Spanish writers, philosophers and public and political figures are Miguel de Unamuno y Huso, Pio Barojo y Nesi, Azorin (Jose Martinez Luis), Antonio Machado, Garcia Lorca and others, who were intensely searching for ” national idea” of Spain, ways of its further spiritual, economic and political revival. Other directions of the cultural development of Spain in the 20th century. associated with the names of the great Catalan architect Antonio Gaudi, who initiated the era of modernism and avant-garde in Spanish art. The greatest representatives of the latter were Pablo Ruiz Picasso, Salvador Dali and Joan Miro. In the last decade, the contribution of Spain to world culture was made by the outstanding architects of our time Calatrava, Sert, Beaufil, artists and sculptures Tapies, Antonio Lopez, Barcelo, Chillida and others, who expressed themselves in the creations of a huge author’s individuality.
