Catalan education minister promises 'structural changes' 

Catalonia's education minister has promised "structural changes" in the education system after recent results in the international PISA assessments, which saw Catalan students fall below the Spanish and OECD averages.

At an appearance in Parliament on Monday, Anna Simó reiterated that the results were "poor", but said the system can improve "quite quickly" if priority is given to combating segregation and child poverty, and that "green shoots" were beginning to be seen in improving the fairness of the education system. 

With the parliamentary groups set to meet with Catalan president Pere Aragonès on Tuesday, Simó's asked political parties not to make it "the umpteenth meeting without results." 

"We have an opportunity and I am convinced that we have the will to take measures so that there are results in the short, medium and long term," the minister said. 

Opposition divided 

MPs from the Socialists, pro-independence Junts, left-wing En Comú Podem and far-left pro-independence CUP have offered their support to the Esquerra Republicana government to deal with what they called the current "crisis" in education but demanded that there be a "change of tack." 

On the other hand, Far-right Vox and right-wing People's Party and Ciudadanos questioned the "green shoots" detected by the minister and criticized the linguistic immersion system, in place in Catalonia for around four decades.