Time's passage has tended to blur the vision of the Second Spanish Republic and judgements of particular aspects are extended to cover the whole period from 1931 to 1939. Leaving aside the more obvious hiatus of the 1933–5 right-wing governments, many other studies have been allowed to gravitate essentially around the first two years of the new regime. The war period has somehow been set aside as an entirely separate order of things which has made it difficult to contrast the achievements of the social democratic governments of 1931–3 with those of the Popular Front government which assumed power on 16 February 1936. This is particularly evident in the cultural and educational fields. Several of the major studies of the period consciously limit themselves to the era from 14 April 1931 to 18 July 1936. These project an idealized vision of the work of ministers like Fernando de los Ríos and Marcelino Domingo, presenting it as the crowning success of the republican years. The ‘teachers’ Republic’ has become a byword for the period, whilst Claudio Lozano has referred to the drive to curb the power of the Catholic Church, by a close-knit educational elite, as a Spanish Kulturkampf.

It is important to appreciate the exact nature of achievements in the educational field, as well as their limitations, in order to evaluate the change of orientation introduced in September 1936.