The driving force for education improvement has spoken clearly to the Department for Education: if it wants to improve educational quality and ensure that PISA results are not repeated, it must put more resources into ensuring that all students start from good learning conditions and teachers have resources and enough time to teach. “There are no magic recipes”, summed up yesterday the president of the group, Jesús Vinyes, after handing the minister the dossier with the 150 measures. Anna Simó said that it would now be her “roadmap” and she would ask the heads of her department for an “exhaustive reading”. In addition, she undertook to schedule and budget everything. He remembered, however, that he has 50 million. “Many initiatives will already be underway, others will not require investment, and others, if the budget for Education does not increase, we will roll them out more slowly.” The task was to propose measures to reverse the bad results in PISA, in the short and long term. These are the measures related to learning.
Specialists in primary school. As with music or English, it is proposed to create two new profiles in children’s and primary schools: teacher specialist in language skills and one in mathematical skills to guide, guide and coordinate teachers.
learn to read “It is necessary to address the existing confusion and advise with methodological scientific evidence on the process of reading and writing”. Therefore, it is requested to draw up a clear frame of reference, with the most effective methodologies according to the scientific evidence.
Detect dyslexia. They ask that tutors, teachers specializing in inclusive education, counselors and psychologists coordinate and have resources available to detect difficulties early.
Reading comprehension. Reinforcement or re-education for 3rd grade students who are lagging behind. Throughout the compulsory course, document and assess reading comprehension and writing in all subjects. There is a demand to strengthen school libraries and give more importance to the reading plan.
Math plan Faced with the current “confusion”, they believe that a frame of reference on the learning of mathematics should be disseminated, with a clear conceptualization, clearly indicating the essential learning for each cycle or stage. The centers must have their improvement plan and guarantee consistency in the methodological line. Training is proposed for teachers.
Basic Curriculum Have a basic curriculum, the one necessary to pass the course without difficulty and avoid the risk of the student dropping out. They propose support and reinforcement measures, within or outside school hours. The recommendation is to start next year with the linguistic and mathematical area.
Attention spaces One of the weaknesses shown in the interviews of the experts with the students is the difficulty in concentration. They suggest promoting spaces and strategies that help regain attention.
Shared tutorials. In ESO and post-compulsory classes, tutoring for a maximum of 15 students.
Prevention of harassment. Training for inclusion in a non-theoretical way with practices applied in the classroom, which promote not only an inclusive culture, but also the prevention of bullying.
selectivity Give guidelines, orientations and models to high school teachers to ensure a competency approach in accordance with what the 2025 university entrance exams will ask for.
Language titles. Encourage 2nd year high school students to take the official Catalan, Spanish or foreign language tests to accredit higher levels.
structural But they are also asking for structural changes, such as more teachers so that there is more than one in the classroom and more well-trained ones, both those who are starting out and those who are in schools. And time for them to reflect and coordinate. And attend to centers of high complexity (less staff mobility and incentivize teachers). In addition, to ensure equity and inclusion, they want reinforcement of cultural integrators, care for the disabled, health workers, psychologists. Reform and expand the staff of psychopedagogical teams (EAP). And that the Administration takes charge of materials, outings and extracurricular activities for vulnerable students.
