More hours do not always mean better education. Spanish secondary school students receive 181 more hours of lessons per year compared to their European peers and, however, this does not place them in the first place in international education, as the PISA report shows. In any case, on the contrary, the teaching overload prevents there being time to strengthen those who are lagging behind, classrooms are split and ratios are lowered. All are strategies to reduce school dropout, another aspect in which Spain also stands out and which currently stands at 13.9% (between 18 and 25 years old), despite the fact that those with only basic education are 26, 5% of those aged 25 to 34.
More time in classrooms and more dropouts compared to European countries or the most developed countries in the world are some of the data that appear in the report Education at a Glance (with a version for Spain provided by the Ministry of Education entitled Panorama of Education), which was published yesterday and which shows improvements compared to ten years ago, but which are insufficient. Spanish students spend more time in school both in primary and secondary school. In primary school, in annual calculations, there are 792 teaching hours, i.e. 55 hours more than the EU25 average and 12 hours less than the OECD average.
Curricular objectives are intensified at the secondary school stage. Spanish students receive 1,057 hours a year, 181 hours more than the EU25 average and 141 hours more than the OECD average.
The computation of hours in ESO in Spain has increased slightly compared to 2015 according to the report, which is why the aim of the latest educational reform, Lomloe, approved in 2020 and which initially wanted to lighten content, not only it was achieved but caused the opposite result, an additional three hours. The reason was that the institutions representing each curricular subject (history, language, mathematics…) did not want to give up their school hours. Compulsory education ends at 16, while in other countries it ends at 18, which in this case allows the content to be distributed.
Finland, one of the countries with the best position in PISA, has 808 teaching hours in ESO, 23% less than Spain. Along with Brazil (800 hours), Greece (811) and Portugal (818), it is the country that burdens teenagers the least. Portugal recently reformed the legislation to lighten the contents. Above Spain are Colombia (1,200) and Chile (1,066).
In addition to the teaching hours, in Spain there are two additional factors that place more burden on the student. On the one hand, the school holidays (longer during the hot months than the rest, which are spread throughout the year so that there are breaks), according to the OECD. And, on the other hand, the day concentrated in the morning hours.
The report indicates what the teaching hours are devoted to. The proportion of time devoted to mathematics and language and literature is similar in Spain to international averages, with small variations between primary school (in favor of Spain) and secondary school.
In primary school, there are fewer hours of language and literature (which in Spain include the co-official language). But in ESO they increase and exceed international averages. It is the same with the foreign language. On the other hand, in mathematics and natural sciences, Spanish teenagers take fewer classes than the rest. This system could be related to repetitions (3 out of 10 are not in the course that corresponds to them by age), dropping out and continuing studies.
Without the OECD report directly correlating it, school dropouts (secondary education at most) are very high, a fact that worries the bodies, which encourage the population not only to have specific training for a profession, but to continue training throughout life. In addition, among these, there is a part of the population that neither studies nor works.
26.5% of young people between the ages of 25 and 34 have up to 3rd year of ESO. The data improves compared to older generations (35.8%) and drops 8 points compared to ten years ago. But it remains very high compared to developed countries (almost 14%) and the EU (12%).
Among those who do not study or work (17.2%, three points above the EU, aged between 18 and 34), half are looking for work and the other half, not. The report highlights that this group “is of concern due to its great vulnerability and is associated with lower rates of employment and wages in the long term, poor mental health and social exclusion”.
