The question of the impact of the pandemic on student performance has been clarified: a global setback, minor in Spain, profound in Catalonia. Spanish students who last year were between 15 and 16 years old, who suffered confinement in the 2nd year of ESO, have lost the equivalent of one and a half courses in reading in mathematics compared to ten years ago. Despite the decline, the falls in OECD countries have been greater, which is why Spain remains within the international averages. Not so Catalonia, which has lost in seven years the equivalent of almost two academic years in reading and 18 months in math and science. It started from good returns and has progressively fallen below the average.
The effects of the pandemic is the main hypothesis, although previous losses were already being experienced that placed our country below international averages. Daniel Salinas, senior analyst of the PISA Report, has described the average results of OECD students as an "unprecedented drop." "There is evidence that suggests that Covid simply intensified a negative trajectory that had been going on since 2018" and this is especially seen in Spain, he stated at a press conference at the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports.
However, the pandemic has brought a halt to this generation of young people around the world (some Asians have withstood the blow better and in Europe, Estonia).
The closure of schools in 2020 and the subsequent confinements, the difficulty in continuing remote studies and other undesirable effects of the pandemic, such as the worsening of mental health and emotional well-being, have been greater in other countries analyzed by PISA (38 OECD countries and 44 associate countries) than in Spain. In Finland, for example, traditionally positioned at the top, it has lost up to 38 points.
As a result of this general decline, Spain remains within the current PISA report within the European and international parameters in both mathematics, reading and science.
In mathematics it scores 473, one point above the OECD. In reading, 474, two below the OECD. And in science, it reaches the highest position, 485, the same as the average for developed countries.
Catalonia is located in math, at 464 points, in reading at 462 and in science, at 477.
Mathematics
The main competence in this edition, the one that has been analyzed in greater depth, is mathematics. If before the pandemic mathematical competence in Spain did not improve significantly (its position fluctuated between 480 and 486 points, slightly below the average of OECD countries), in 2022 it has fallen to 473 points, 8 points below 2018 and 11 compared to 2012.
The OECD estimates that a loss of 20 points is equivalent to one school year. According to this equivalence, Spanish students who were in 4th year of ESO last year and who were caught in 2nd year by the pandemic would have lost half a year compared to 15-year-old students ten years ago. A loss of 20 points takes "several years" to recover, the report states.
As the drop has been greater than the international average (22 points), Spain has been placed one point above the OECD and one point below the European Union. In this regard, the OECD report for Spain indicates that the "sharp decline" draws "powerful" attention, which can be attributed, hypothetically, to the school closures and subsequent confinements. Spain is at the level of Germany, France, Portugal (which have lost more than 20 points) or Norway (33 points below 2018. Finland, despite the loss of 23 points, is above all of them with 484 but is distance from the leading position having almost 20 countries above it and is far from the first, Singapore with 575.
Catalonia has reached 469 points in mathematics, 31 points less than in 2015, when 500 points were reached. That is, if we follow the OECD course equivalencies, one and a half courses less compared to students from just seven years ago.
Compared to 2018, which would measure the effect of the pandemic, Catalonia has lost 21 points (one course). Only Melilla has lost more (28 points). The loss of the Spanish average in this period is 8 points (Madrid gained 8 points and Asturias 4). The report includes data from Spain and the autonomous communities for 2018 despite the fact that the organization itself detected errors, not errors, and considers them "unreliable."
Catalonia has 12 autonomous communities with the highest scores, with Castilla y León at the top, close to 500 points, followed by Asturias (495), Cantabria (495), Madrid (494) and La Rioja (493), among others. The lowest yields correspond to the Canary Islands (447), Melilla (404) and Ceuta (395).
Reading
In reading performance, Spain stands at 474, very similar to the OECD average (476) and the EU (475). However, this means a sharp decrease compared to the averages obtained in 2015 of 22 points and in 2012, of 14 points. It is at the level of France and Norway, which in one edition have lost the equivalent of an entire academic year, Portugal or Germany. Finland has once again dropped steps, with a decline of 30 points, placing itself at 490. The list is headed by Singapore (543), Ireland (516), Japan (516), Korea (515), Chinese Taipei (515) and Estonia ( 511).
Reading, as other international studies and internal evaluations have already confirmed, continues to decline in Catalonia. The students of this community, who in 2012 exceeded 500 points, placing themselves above the OECD, are now 38 points below this figure. That is, the students from then, who have now turned 26 years old, and those from now are almost two years apart in terms of reading. If they do not recover it in the next courses if they are studying high school or vocational training (if they are of suitable age they have already left ESO), they will not recover it through formal education.
In 2015, a significant increase had been achieved compared to the 2012 edition (almost 10 points difference) to subsequently collapse (without knowing the data for 2018, since the anomaly occurred specifically in this competition).
The Basque Country and Navarra have also experienced very significant drops (32 and 31 points).
Among the Spanish autonomous communities and cities, the highest estimated average yields are those of Castilla y León (498), Asturias (497) and Comunidad de Madrid (496), and the lowest are those of Andalusia (461), Melilla (405) and Ceuta (404).
Sciences
Regarding science, Spanish students have lost the equivalent of half a year compared to what young people knew in 2012. Then, the average performance was 496. In the next edition, 3 points were lost and in 2018, the previous one Due to the pandemic, the decrease was 10 points. Post-pandemic, two points have been recovered. The blow that countries such as Japan (17 points), which is in second position after Singapore, Chinese Taipei (22 points), the Netherlands (15), Finland (11 points) and Germany (11) have not been able to resist, has been contained. All in all, the falls in science seem to be smaller compared to those in other areas of knowledge.
By autonomous community, in eight there have been no significant variations, and in six there have been. The most pronounced correspond to the Basque Country (26) and Navarra (25), in addition to Catalunya and Madrid, both with 15 points of relegation.
The list is headed by Castilla y León (506 points), Galicia (506) and Cantabria (504), and is closed by Andalusia (473), the Canary Islands (473), Melilla (414) and Ceuta (410).
Gender and equity
Spain, as in most countries, on average, girls outperform boys in reading and, to a lesser extent, boys outperform girls in mathematics. On the other hand, the differences by gender are not significant.
On the other hand, in all countries, students from a socioeconomically advantaged background perform significantly better than those from a disadvantaged background. In Spain, the difference in performance, of 86 points, is however lower than the OECD average (93
points) and in the EU total (102).
What is notable are the results between Spaniards and students of foreign origin. In mathematics, the difference is 481 for natives and 448 for foreigners. In reading, 483 and 451, respectively. Proportions similar to those of the EU and the OECD are maintained.
As in previous editions, Spanish students once again stand out for their high degree of integration in the school, with Spanish being the third highest value in the study, behind only Austria and Switzerland. Thus, 86% of Spanish students indicate that they feel that they belong at their school (compared to 75% in the OECD average) and 78% report that they make friends easily (compared to 76% in the OECD average), which has a favorable impact in the school climate and in the motivation and performance of the students.
Spain, as has already been confirmed on other occasions, appears as one of the countries that forces its students to repeat more.
