Spanish education, still in the XX century

There are a lot of European students that come to Spain to spend a year "studying" and partying. This is thanks to Erasmus grants that help students that want to study a year abroad.

When you talk with them and you ask them about the courses, they usually say that they are surprised because universities here relies too much in theory and memmorizing. And when I say too much, I mean too much.

Many Spanish students leave university without having spoken in public a single time. What is worst, a big deal of them, won't remember almost anything about they have learnt in 6 months.

The reason is because in most of Spanish universities you just need to memmorize thing in order to approve.

Some teachers like to say they give a practical approach to theory, meaning you will need to give their subjective opinion about the topic in the exam. It is not about how well you reasoned an idea, but about how similar are your thoughts to theirs.

I still laugh with my friends when we remember one of my friends that always memmorize everything and copy it in the exam sheet. The first time he did one exam he was told him has failed because his approach was too practical. The second time, he did exactly the same, memmorize and put it word by word in the exam, and passes with a 7 out of 10. This time the teacher told him that now he got the practical approach she expected from her students.

That is exactly how I feel about our education. It is not mature enough to allow critical thinking, and we still rely in memmory, which is useful, but shouldn't be the only skill needed.