The latest PISA report, which assesses the academic performance of 15- and 16-year-old students in up to 81 countries, fell like a bucket of cold water on the education authorities in Spain in December. The dire verdict reflected a serious setback for Spanish students, especially in mathematics and also in reading comprehension.
And now comes the reaction of the Spanish Government, very upset by this situation and without the consolation that the PISA report recorded a drop in educational results in most of the countries analyzed around the world. Pedro Sánchez announced yesterday that the Executive will roll out a reinforcement plan in mathematics and reading comprehension for all students, as a reaction to the poor results revealed in these subjects in Spain.
Sánchez assured that he is aware, in view of these results, that “despite the effort of the students, and also of the teachers and families, there are subjects that are hard to chew”. “We will not stop, especially in the educational field”, he said.
The president explained that, in the general budgets of the State for 2024 – the project of which, which is scheduled to be approved in the first quarter of the year, is still under negotiation -, the central government will include the item necessary to deploy this reinforcement plan in mathematics and in reading comprehension for students.
Sánchez assured that the purpose of the Executive is to apply this new program together with the educational community, to try to reverse the decline recorded in the students’ abilities. And this same week, as agreed with the Minister of Education and Vocational Training, Pilar Alegría, a meeting with the School Board is scheduled to be held to put this plan on the table and start promoting this plan. This is what the president revealed yesterday during the closing of the PSOE political convention held in A Coruña.
Awaiting more concreteness of the project, government sources advanced yesterday that this educational reinforcement program, in a first phase, will be aimed at students from the third grade of primary school to the entire cycle of Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO), from so that it is expected to benefit around 4.7 million students throughout Spain.
The plan, according to these sources from the Executive, will be deployed in three areas. On the one hand, the program will be applied during school hours, with the classrooms split, so that there are fewer students per class. On the other hand, it will also take place outside school hours, with reinforcement teachers for students with difficulties. In this way, the Government emphasizes, families will not have to resort to paying for private lessons for children who need this reinforcement in mathematics and reading comprehension. Finally, it is planned to develop a specific training plan for teachers.
In a subsequent phase, the program could be extended to high school students, according to these sources. “Investing in education is investing in the future of a country, the best possible investment”, emphasized Minister Pilar Alegría.
Government sources indicated that, pending the closing of the draft of the new general budgets of the State for 2024 and that will have to be negotiated with the parliamentary partners, the educational reinforcement program could have an investment of more than 500 millions of euros.
The Spanish Executive also pointed out that the deployment of this program will also have to be articulated through a territorial cooperation plan, since the educational powers are transferred to the autonomous communities. In any case, it would be for next year.
The PP, however, did not take long to respond to Sánchez’s announcement. And he warned that, with this reinforcement program in mathematics and reading comprehension, the president of the Spanish Government admits the shortcomings of his educational model. For the training of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the delay of the students in the two subjects is the consequence of a socialist educational model that “enshrines the law of minimum effort, since it allows the student to pass the course with suspended subjects and without acquiring the necessary knowledge”. I call on the central government to engage in dialogue with the opposition and with the autonomous regions.
