First meeting between Catalan government and parties to address poor PISA results  

Two weeks after the poor Catalan results in the international PISA tests, the government will meet the rest of the parties at Parliament on Tuesday at 6pm. 

President Pere Aragonès hopes the meeting will be a “starting point,” and stresses that, faced with the current situation, important interparty agreements and commitments are needed.   

The purpose of the meeting is to discuss possible solutions to the poor results. All parties are expected to participate except far-right Vox.  

Support from parties  

The Catalan Socialists (PSC), together with Junts, En Comú Podem, and far-left CUP, have offered their support to the Catalan government to face the education “crisis” but have also demanded a “change of direction.”     

Catalan minister of Education, Anna Simó admits that “structural changes” are needed, but also rules out a change of direction within the educational system. Instead, Simó insists that the system can change “fairly quickly” if fighting segregation and childhood poverty is prioritized.

Poor results 

Catalonia's results in the 2022 PISA tests fell in all three areas of assessment, placing Catalan students below the average for Spain and other countries that form part of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).  

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2022 tests assessed the mathematics, science, and reading comprehension skills of more than 700,000 15-year-old students in 81 countries around the world. In Catalonia, they took place during the spring of 2022.  

In the report published on December 5, Catalonia obtained 469 points in mathematics, 21 less compared to the last tests carried out in 2018, the lowest score since 2006.  

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

In reading, pupils scored their worst results since 2006 with 462 points, 22 less than in 2018, and only ahead of Andalusia (461), Melilla (405) and Ceuta (404) within Spain.