Changing education could make a big difference in making people more aware of other cultures and being more concerned about equality. The government needs to support this though, since it's a political issue.

Besides, the trend at the moment to give more power to the autonomous regions in Spain (Catalonia, the Basque country and Galicia) makes people want to strengthen regional languages and local traditions. One example of this is that anyone moving into these regions, from either outside or inside Spain, have to learn local languages, especially in schools. This sometimes creates conflict.

So does the school system reflect and work for the development of Spain's diversity? Not really, since schools do not usually have any subject dealing with these things. If anything, up to now multi/intercultural education has been considered a kind of help for immigrants, or 'compensatory' education as it's called.

The 1990 Education Reform Act ("Ley Orgánica de Ordenación General del Sistema Educativo" -L.O.G.S.E.) said the core curriculum in primary schools had to be maths, foreign languages, Spanish, physical education, arts and a new 'subject' called 'natural, social and cultural environment'. In this subject the law said that for the first time schools should deal with ethics, peace education, gender, and education about health and the environment, ideally through school activities and experiences. Not much is said about education about racism or about different different cultures, though it is mentioned in the general aims of peace education.

So, although Spain has had diversity for a while, it is now experiencing a new and more varied wave of immigration, which produces new educational needs.