This lecture presents a reflection on the fundamental content of the basic education curriculum. The arguments set forth within the Spanish educational context may be divided into three main categories. The first refers to the contradictions in the decision making processes regarding what should be taught and what should be learned in basic education, and in which the requirement to attend to the needs of new social, economic and technological scenarios call for the incorporation of new content in the curriculum, but the accumulation of curricular contents makes it practically impossible for them to be taught and learned. Secondly, the author ponders some aspects or dimensions that acquire a special relevance in the new perspective of the basic education curriculum and in which concepts of content such as “indispensable basic” and “desirable basic” are discussed as criteria for decision making. Finally, in the third category, a succinct diagram is presented as an example based on the concepts of literacy, competency and knowledge associated with the acquisition and development of the capacities that illustrate this new perspective.

Key words: Curriculum development, basic education, competence.