Development Education and Compulsory Education

Development Education (DE) it is considered as an educational process that promotes the citizenship committed to development. This issue becomes a topic of particular interest in the context of Post-2015 agenda to achieve the United Nations Millenium Development Goals for human development. This article discusses, from a pedagogical perspective, whether the DE should have its own space in compulsory education in Spain, as it is advocated by some sectors linked to development cooperation, or rather must be integrated by other educational approaches that operate in the school. To solve this issue, we have follow the next steps: Briefly describe the results of the research about the presence of DE in compulsory education; understand what is DE and how it is conceptualized in Spain. We conclude that it is necessary to highlight and introduce the DE in school programs of social education, ethics and citizenship in compulsory education. The main reason is that education is the means, purpose and basic component of human development.