Navarra establishes the common evaluation framework for Vocational Training

The Minister of Education of the Government of Navarra, Carlos Gimeno Gurpegui, has signed Foral Order 46/2026, dated September 25, which regulates evaluation in grades A, B, C, D, and E of the Vocational Training System in the Chartered Community of Navarra. The provision is published in the Official Gazette of Navarra number 206, dated October 15, 2026, and enters into force the day following its publication, applying to the offerings taught during the 2026-2027 academic year and subsequent courses.

The regulation develops Organic Law 3/2022, of March 31, on the organization and integration of Vocational Training, and Royal Decree 659/2023, of July 18, which organizes the new Vocational Training System. It is issued following a mandatory report from the School Council of Navarra and by virtue of the powers attributed by article 41.1 f) of Foral Law 14/2004, of December 3, of the Government of Navarra and its President.

The text is structured into a preliminary title, a title I dedicated to the common evaluation regime—including guarantees of information, review, and appeal, academic documentation, and management systems—and a title II that develops the specialties by grade, modality, specific offering, and procedure. It is completed with seven additional provisions, three transitional, one repealing, and five final provisions, in addition to thirteen annexes, and consists of 174 articles.

A continuous, competency-based, and integrated model

The order defines evaluation as a continuous, integrated, competency-based, contextualized, formative, and accrediting process, supported by the relationship between learning outcomes, evaluation criteria, evidence, instruments, and academic decisions. The regulation expressly rejects evaluative hyper-fragmentation, the indiscriminate accumulation of micro-grades, and disproportionate documentary burdens.

Recovery is no longer conceived as a parallel process or reduced to extraordinary tests and is integrated into the ordinary teaching and learning process. Training in a company or equivalent organization is part of a single training and evaluation process, although its participation is formative, collaborative, and informative, without attributing official competencies for grading, promotion, accreditation, certification, or qualification.

Global competency sufficiency and exceptional compensation

One of the axes of the regulation is global competency sufficiency, an integrated assessment criterion that allows for the justification of certain decisions regarding passing, promotion, accreditation, certification, or qualification. The order specifies that this does not constitute an autonomous, automatic, or alternative path to passing and does not allow for the attribution of competencies that have not been acquired.

Exceptional competency compensation is established as an exceptional modality of collegiate decision, applicable only in the provided cases and within the established limits, with reinforced motivation and documentary traceability. It is identified by the coding 5-C, requires a prior ordinary grade lower than five, and finally computes with a numerical value of five. It may not be based exclusively on arithmetic means nor become an ordinary route to certification.

Specialties by grade, modalities, and free exams

In Grade A offers, the evaluation is expressed as “passed” or “not passed,” without a numerical grade, and passing leads to a partial accreditation of competence. In the face-to-face modality, a minimum attendance of 75% of the training block hours is required; in the virtual modality, having completed 75% of the activities and passed at least 70%.

The blended and virtual modalities incorporate a final evaluation test of a face-to-face nature, the grade of which is integrated with the rest of the evidence without being derived from an automatic average. Free exams are convened at least once a year, are graded from one to ten without decimals, and are considered passed with five or more; exceptional competency compensation is not applicable to them.

Regarding exemptions from company-based training, the order sets a minimum full-time work experience of one year for Grade D offers and six months for Grade C and, where applicable, E. Partial exemption requires six months for Grade D and three months for Grade C and E, within the previous five years.

Progressive implementation and adaptation of EDUCA

Implementation shall be progressive and coordinated, with calendars, technical instructions, and provisional documentary models that the competent general directorate for vocational training may approve by resolution. The functional and technological adaptation of EDUCA and other academic management systems will be developed gradually, such that their limitations cannot alter academic effects or cause prejudice to the students.

The order repeals Foral Order 21/2019, of March 5, which regulated the evaluation, certification, and accreditation of intermediate and higher-level students, and modifies Foral Order 49/2013, of May 21, regarding claims, and Foral Order 40/2024, of April 11, regarding student admission.

Students who began their studies under previous regulations maintain their academic rights, and actions carried out before the entry into force for the 2026-2027 academic year shall retain full validity if they are compatible with the new regulation.

The relevance of the order is twofold: on one hand, it unifies for the first time in Navarra the evaluation regime for all Vocational Training offerings, from Grade A to specialization courses; on the other, it regulates how students are graded, promoted, and certified, providing guarantees for review and appeal for the students and homogeneous criteria for the teaching staff and faculty teams of public centers, semi-private (concertados) centers, and authorized training entities.

Source: Official Gazette of Navarra, number 206, of October 15, 2026, section 1.1.3. Foral Orders, page 36238 et seq. (official reference: BON-2026-206).