Catalonia's PISA shock: What the latest results say about Catalan schools

The latest results of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) sent shockwaves through the Catalan education community. The test, conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), assesses the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students around the world.  

The latest assessment - which was due to take place in 2021 but was delayed a year due to the pandemic - showed a significant drop in performance among OECD countries, but even more so in Catalonia, where students scored their worst ever results.

How bad are the results?

In maths, the level in Catalonia dropped 21 points between 2018 and 2022, which, according to the OECD's own calculations, represents a loss of knowledge of more than a full school year.

In science, Catalan students scored their worst results since 2003, with 477 points, 12 less than in 2018. In reading, students scored their worst results since 2006 with 462 points, 22 less than in 2018.

Over a decade (from 2012 to 2022), Catalan students have lost one academic year in math (24 points), almost two in reading (38) and practically one in science (15). 

How does it compare to Spain?

Spain lost 15 points in maths, 10 in reading and 2 in science, the worst results in its history. However, despite the poor performance, it is the first time that Spain has reached the OECD average, after always being below it.

Castilla y León was the Spanish region that performed best in PISA. Catalan students went from the top to the bottom of the list of Spanish regions.

In science and reading, Catalonia is only ahead of Ceuta, Melilla and Andalusia. In maths, Catalonia is only ahead of Andalusia, Ceuta, Melilla, the Canary Islands and Castilla-La Mancha.

What about other OECD countries?

Europe also suffered an unprecedented decline in PISA scores, particularly in Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Poland.

Performance in mathematics across OECD countries fell by a record 15 points, while reading dropped by 10 points and science remained fairly constant.

The loss of knowledge in maths among Catalan students (-21 points) is similar to the average of OECD countries, which fell by 17 points, and European Union countries, which fell by 20 points.

The results in Catalonia are now almost identical to those of countries such as Norway (468), Italy (471), Portugal (472) or the United States (465), but far from the top countries, mostly Asian, such as Japan (536) or South Korea (527).

Why have the results been so bad?

The education debate, which is usually under the radar, came into the public eye with the PISA tests and has been a major topic of discussion in Catalan society in recent months.

In addition to the government's position, which attributes the poor results to school segregation and child poverty, experts have also pointed to funding, the pandemic, and the use of mobile phones in schools.

Mònica Nadal, research director at Fundació Bofill, a nonprofit research organization dedicated to improving education, says Catalan education has been underfunded for many years, while its complexity has changed.

"Catalonia has underinvested in education for at least the last 15 years. At the same time, the makeup of the student population has changed dramatically. We've had a lot of immigration in the last 20 years, which in itself is not a problem if you have the right policies to deal with it," she said.

Nadal stressed the importance of having strong policies and well-trained teachers to quickly and effectively teach children the necessary language skills once they arrive in Catalonia.

School segregation was also identified as another critical issue. "Migrant children tend to go to the same schools, and children from more privileged families go to different schools. We need to make sure that every school in the country reflects the reality of the demographics of the community," Nadal added.

Nadal acknowledged the impact of the pandemic, but argued that it was not the primary cause of the educational challenges.

"COVID is partly to blame, but it could have been addressed," Nadal explains. "Some children suffered a lot because they were at home for months while their parents worked and no one was there to help them."

How have politicians responded?

The political response to these worrying results was swift. The Catalan government initially blamed the poor performance on an "overrepresentation" of immigrant pupils, but later shifted the blame to school segregation and child poverty. Carles Vega, the education official who made the original remarks was sacked last week.

A few days after the results, Catalan President Pere Aragonès convened a summit with all parliamentary parties and set up a working group of education experts to draw up a plan to improve the education system.

However, the main teachers' union, USTEC, said the experts' conclusions will be "predetermined" and "flawed from the start" and criticized the Education Ministry for not publishing the selection criteria for the commission.

Another reaction came from Catalonia's education minister, Anna Simó, who sent a letter to families in response to the students' poor performance. In the letter, she asked parents to support teachers and urged them to get involved in their children's education as they were "the key to educational success".

The letter "outraged" the Association of Federated Families of Students of Catalonia (aFFaC), the largest parents' association in Catalonia, as they understood that the government was putting the blame on parents.

Despite Spain's relatively good results, Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez promised more funding in the 2024 budget for a plan to strengthen maths and reading for all students in Spain, from primary to secondary school.

To learn more about Catalonia's education system, listen to the latest episode of our podcast Filling the Sink.