Education postpones ESO equivalency exams to November 12

The General Directorate of Vocational Training and Special Regime of the Department of Education of the Regional Government of Castilla y León has moved the date for the second call of the open exams for the direct attainment of the Compulsory Secondary Education Graduate degree from November 11 to November 12, 2026. The change is in response to the general strike called for November 11 by Comisiones Obreras and the Unión General de Trabajadores, among other trade union organizations. The decision is formalized in the Resolution of October 15, 2026, published in the Official Gazette of Castilla y León no. 203, of October 20, 2026 (reference BOCYL-D-20102026-203-11).

The regulation modifies point 1.b) of the third section of the Resolution of March 20, 2026, from the same General Directorate, which announced the 2026 open exams for persons over 18 years of age in the Community. The text justifies the change by stating that, given the general strike call, “it is considered convenient to move the date for the second call exams to the following day.” The resolution is issued under the powers of Article 9 of Decree 18/2026, of June 29, which establishes the organic structure of the Department of Education, and bears the signature of the Director General, Agustín Francisco Sigüenza Molina.

The framework for the call is Order EDU/1001/2026, of September 29, published in BOCYL no. 193, of October 5, 2026, which develops the organization of secondary education for adults and regulates these open exams. Article 36 attributes the annual call to the competent general directorate and guarantees, in any case, a call whose exams are held between May 15 and June 15 of each year. The 2026 calls covered by the March resolution continue to be governed, according to the transitional provision of the new order, by Order EDU/353/2018, of March 27.

What changes and who is affected

• Previous date: November 11, 2026 (second call).
• New date: November 12, 2026.
• Scope: the modification only affects point 1.b) of the third section, relating to the second call.
• Recipients: persons over 18 years of age and those who reach that age within the calendar year in which the exams are held.
• Territory: the date of the exams is the same in all provinces of the Community.

Structure and development of the exams

According to the regulatory order, the test consists of three parts, one for each area of knowledge: communication—with two exercises, Spanish Language and Literature and Foreign Language—, social, and scientific-technological. Applicants may request an exemption for any area already passed or validated at the time of registration, and the provincial education directorates resolve these exemptions.

The evaluation boards are constituted with a maximum limit of 200 registered persons per board and are composed of a president and four members, with the exceptional possibility of up to two additional members per area. Grades are awarded between 0 and 10, with two decimal places, and are expressed as Insufficient, Sufficient, Good, Notable, or Outstanding. The results are published in the centers where the tests are held, in the provincial directorates, and on the Lifelong Learning thematic website of the Education Portal.

Claims and appeals

Those who are not satisfied with the results may file a written claim before the evaluation board within two business days from the day following their publication; the board resolves within the following two business days. Against the resolution of October 15, which does not end the administrative process, an administrative appeal (recurso de alzada) may be filed before the Minister of Education within one month from the day following its publication in the bulletin.

The change of date affects those registered for the second call, who have one more day of margin to prepare for exams whose title is equivalent to that of compulsory secondary education and opens the door to vocational training studies, baccalaureate, and certain labor access processes. The coincidence with the general strike made it unfeasible to guarantee the normal development of the tests in the public centers where they are planned.

Source: Official Gazette of Castilla y León, no. 203, October 20, 2026, I. Community of Castilla y León – D. Other provisions, pp. 67-68 (official reference: BOCYL-D-20102026-203-11).