Basic skills training: a challenge for the government

Resumen

This article sets out the results of research that seeks to describe and analyse how basic skills are introduced in schools in the Balearic Islands autonomous community.
The research began with four basic questions. How does the education authority plan what training should be given in basic skills; what beliefs and what role do the assessors have who are in charge of this training; what processes do they use and, finally, how do they assess them. A methodological design was used, qualitative in nature, centred on interviews and discussion groups as tools for gathering information.
The conclusions of the work point, amongst other things, to a certain hastiness in administrative decisions, a lack of coherence between the various services and agencies involved, and the absence of assessment of the transfer of knowledge