What's that Sound?

The newest results of the international PISA test in the Camino a Ítaca this week. Once again, excuses are made but the root cause is once again avoided. Click over to read the original article published in Spanish in el HOY or read the English version below. (PDF en castellano abajo)

The programmed ritual self-flagellation has once again begun. The echoes of lashes reverberate throughout the country, from the smallest of teacher’s rooms to the editorial pages of newspapers to the highest offices of the Ministry of Education, as this devotional practice of self-criticism runs its course.

The results of the PISA test have been released and show that Spain has achieved its worse results since testing began back in 2000. In this eighth edition of the global test, 690,000 students from 81 countries aged 15 and 16 participated, 30,800 of them Spanish. The tests were conducted, with a one-year delay due to the pandemic, in the spring of 2022 so the newest of the never-ending string of education laws hadn’t fully come into effect.

Once again the flawed Spanish education system demonstrated that the window dressing changes that have been implemented towards a more competence based education system haven’t made a difference. The law may have changed and will certainly change again, but what is happening in classrooms across the country hasn’t.

The results have provoked a mad rush to uncover reasons and to assign blame. In Catalonia they even went so far as to release a xenophobic excuse that immigrants were overrepresented in their case.

In this edition the format of the math test changed again to become even more competency-based, one that requires students to make a greater effort in reasoning and relating knowledge in order to apply it to solving real life problems, which also certainly took its toll on the results.

Reading comprehension is one of the most basic skills, not because the OECD says so, but because it is the essential stepping stone for other learning. It is a key competence for educational inclusion, for the academic success of all students. This means working with competences rather than simple mechanical practice in class and the overwhelming load of homework Spanish kids receive is the way forward. The excessive focus on rote learning and memorization so common in Spanish classrooms is far past its sell by date.

But while the sounds of flagellation still reverberate, they refuse to acknowledge the real root of the problem. It’s almost like the Filipino Catholics or the Shiite Muslims in Iraq who continue to practice self-flagelation woke up one day and began whipping themselves only to realize that they had the wrong day marked on their calendar. They’re completely missing the point.

You can make as many changes as you want to the law but if you don’t change one of the fundamental pillars of Spanish society, real change will never happen.

The elephant in the room remains the opocisiones, the way that public employees are chosen. There is nothing more medieval and anti-competence based than the public exam system here in Spain and its presence can be felt in all levels of education, from primary all the way up through University.

Consciously or subconsciously, what teachers are preparing are opositores.

Teachers can’t be expected to believe in and apply competence-based education when their very careers came about due to an exam where they simply had to memorize and vomit a series of topics.

Until this system changes the whipping will never cease.