Although Rubalcaba has dedicated the majority of his life to politics with several charges –vice president and speaker of the government, as well as Minister of Internal Affairs during the chairmanship of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero; and also speaker, Minister of Education and Science, and Presidency within the chairmanship of Felipe González–, he returned to the education field in 2014. He started to give lessons of Organic Chemistry in the Complutense University of Madrid.

The aim of Rubalcaba in this conference is “to raise awareness of some topics, some common places, some prejudices... some ideas about our educational system that, are in our conversations and even in the political messages”. And he will achieve this goal “modestly” through one of the less known works of Gustave Flaubert  ‘El diccionario de ideas recibidas’, in which the writer does the same in the frameworks of the French society of the mid of 19th century.

“Do our students know less than we knew? Have we got a bad educational system? Are there education laws as much as all the Ministers of Education in our democracy? Why should we maintain the university entrance exam if everybody passes? Is there any education alternative to the university? Are there too much universities in Spain?” These are some of the questions that will raise the former Minister of Education.

From Rubalcaba’s point of view, “there is a concern that the topics are imposed to the reasoning when starts the debate of education agreement. Making a wrong diagnosis can have devastating effects. And, as it has happened recently in our history, we can end up refurbishing what is not necessary and leaving intact some issues that do not function as they should do”.

The conference is one of the activities of the Escola Europea de Pensament Lluís Vives  (http://www.escoladepensamentlluisvives.com). This is a cultural project, boosted by the Office of the Vice-Principal for Culture and Equality of the UV, which is configured as a space for reflection and open, participatory and critical debate about current issues at world level and also for the Valencian society. The Escola also counts on the participation of other individuals of the Public administration and civil society: The Presidency of the Valencian government, the City Hall of Valencia, the Valencian Department of Transparency and Education, Research, Culture and Sports, the Valencian Academy of the Language, the Alfons el Magnànim Institute, the European Humanities College, Caixa Popular and the management of the General Foundation of the Universitat de València.