Good news in Catalan education. The early educational dropout rate in Catalonia has fallen three points in 2023, reaching parameters already similar to the Spanish average. The figure published this morning by the Ministry of Education and FP, based on data from the Active Population Survey (EPA), indicates that 14% of young Catalans between 18 and 24 years old have no further studies than compulsory education. They have not followed a training cycle or high school, nor, of course, do they have university studies. The good news is not in the figure, which is still high by European averages, but in the decrease it has given compared to the previous year.
The average in Spain, abandonment is 13.6%, only three tenths less than in 2022, so it does not recover the standards of 2021. In addition, it presents very significant differences between autonomous communities.
Catalonia is no longer the community with the worst results (in 2022, with a rate of 16.9% it was along with the Balearic Islands and Murcia). In 2023, it is above Andalusia (16.8%), the Balearic Islands (19.1%), the Canary Islands (15.1%), Castilla-La Mancha (15.7%), Murcia (19%), Comunidad Valenciana (14.3%) and Ceuta (19.2%) and Melilla (17.3%).
With better results are Aragón (10.2%), Asturias (10.1%), Cantabria (7.4%), Castilla y León (9.9%), Extremadura (10.3%), Galicia ( 8.8%), Madrid (12.6%), Navarra (6.3%), the Basque Country (6.4%) and La Rioja (9.4%).
The abandonment rate in Catalonia has fluctuated in fits and starts over recent years, unlike the Spanish average, which has registered a sustained decrease over time, with the exception of the lift in 2022. Thus, in 2015 Catalonia managed to lower the border from 20% to 18.9%, improving that figure each year until reaching 17% in 2018.
That is where the first worsening occurs because in 2019, the rate increases two points (19%). It drops again in 2020 (17.4%) and in 2021 (14.8%). That is, more than four points of difference in the two years mentioned. The setback in 2022 meant practically losing the gain obtained in 2021. Now it has improved again by 2.9 points, reaching its historical minimum.
However, it is still far from the objective set by the European Union of 10%. It only reaches the European averages (the figure is from 2022, the figure from 2023 is not yet accounted for) Navarra (6.3%) and the Basque Country (6.4%), Cantabria (7.4%), Galicia (8.8 %) and La Rioja (9.4%).