Page "Francoist Spain" Paragraph 45

The Catholic Church's ties with the Franco dictatorship conferred it control over the country's schools.

Crucifixes were reestablished in schoolrooms.

At the war's end Franco chose Jose Ibanez Martin, part of the National Catholic Association of Propagandists ( AcNdP ) to lead the Ministry.

He occupied the post for 12 years, years in which he finished the task of purging the ministry begun by the Commission of Culture and Teaching which was headed by Jose Maria Peman.

Peman led the work of Catholicizing state-sponsored schools and allocating generous funding to the Church's schools.

Romualdo de Toledo, head of the National Service of Primary Education was a traditionalist who held as his model school " the monastery founded by St Benedict ".

The clergy in charge of the education system sanctioned and sacked thousands of teachers of the progressive left and divided Spain's schools up among the families of falangists, loyalist soldiers, and Catholic families.

In some provinces.

like Lugo for example, " practically all the teachers were dismissed.

" At the university level this process also prevailed, as Ibanez Martin, Catholic propagandists, and the Opus Dei ensured professorships were offered only to the most faithful.