When the PISA 2018 report came out, EL PERIÓDICO reflected, in an editorial, that the general worsening should not be taken “as an irremediable failure, but as a serious warning, especially with regard to the future evolution of the tests.” . Four years later, once the report corresponding to 2022 was made public (delayed one year due to the pandemic), the data provided by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) from the tests carried out in young people between 15 and 16 years old (4th year of ESO), are more than worrying, they are, at this point, more than a “serious warning.” Are the verification, now, of an unprecedented school failure.
Because the reading of the PISA report, beyond the photograph of the moment, which certifies a notable decline at a global level, must be interpreted based on the evolution of recent years. We could agree that certain specific circumstances affect the final result, but what is verifiable (and does not allow excuses) is that The trajectory of the last 10 years is notably downward. In a decade, students in Catalonia have lost one course in mathematics (24 points), almost two in reading comprehension (38 points) and almost one in science (15 points). While Spain as a whole remains, broadly speaking, at the OECD average (with a general decline in knowledge), Catalonia registers a score that some experts have not hesitated to describe as “catastrophic.”
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The first reaction of the Generalitat was to attribute the figures to an “overrepresentation of immigrant students”, although shortly after President Pere Aragonès recognized that the PISA report “is bad, without excuses”. It is true that students of foreign origin have increased in the last 10 years (from 12% to 24%) and that, in this sense, the social gap that is established between students is verifiable. young people from vulnerable families and those who enjoy a more favorable status (the report establishes the gap in the loss of two courses between native and immigrant students), it is also true that the results are so forceful that they force us to reflect that not only has to take into account inequalities that are widening with time, also referring to the comparison between public and private centers, but also the learning model that has been implemented in the educational environment since competency approach and pedagogical innovations that competencies take precedence over content.
To reverse the situation, not only investments in projects and improvement plans, which are already being carried out, measures to deal with the complexity of the centers and avoid segregation or effective monitoring of the responsibility of teachers (with measures that not only ensure stabilization but also a greater provision of resources and a decrease in the ratio per classroom), but profound structural reforms, which must include a rethinking of the educational system, without partisan interference, with the main objective that the failure now observed is remediable in the future. The situation goes back a long way, there is no single person responsible to attribute the poor PISA results. It will be convenient, however, that the positive reversal be the result of a dialogue between everyone, political forces and the educational community.