Students hand in petition for nationally-standardised university entrance exam

Five candidates aged between 17 and 19 handed the petition in today to the ministry of education.

Started by Roberto Castrillo, 19, from León – who was accompanied by four others from León, Madrid and Alicante – the campaign is calling for the Evaluación de Bachillerato para el Accesso a la Universidad ('A-level evaluation for university access'), known as the EvAU or EBAU to follow the same curriculum, structure and questions throughout Spain rather than being different for each of its 17 autonomously-governed regions.

Whilst the Bachillerato – Spain's answer to A-levels – is marked internally by the pupil's school or college, the EvAU, formerly known as Selectividad, is independently-graded.

It is a summary of the material studied in Bachillerato and is necessary for university entrance.

But regional differences can mean qualifying for a higher education place and for grants to cover tuition fees and towards cost of living becomes a postcode lottery.

Students in the Valencia region who sat the sciences curriculum said the maths questions were 'impossible', and now up to 9,000 teens fear they will not get a grant for their degree courses.

At national government level, the right-wing PP and centre-right Ciudadanos have already proposed in Parliament that the EvAU be the same nationwide.

Education minister Isabel Celaá says the EvAU, which was presented in its new format this month, 'works well', but that she will create a working group made up of university faculty heads, regional governments and various education experts to look into the issue.