The report “Indicators on the state of the education system in Spain and Andalusia” promoted every year by the Southern Spanish Business Association (Cesur) through the Circle of Economy and Society (CEYS), its think tank on educational innovation, guarantees that, out of ten Andalusians studying Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO), three have repeated a course. In Andalusia, the eligibility rate at 15 years old is 70%, “the third lowest in the country”.
This is what Cesur stated in a press release in which it refers to the aforementioned report, which warns that “30% of young Andalusians are not in the corresponding class”. All this influences, according to the report, that “Andalusia has the sixth lowest gross graduation rate in ESO (78.3%). compared to the national average (80.9%), in the 2021/2022 academic year. Both figures are “lower than those of the previous year, which were higher due to the “influence” of the pandemic.
The results of the report were presented in Seville by Miguel Ángel Sancho, president of the European Foundation for Society and Education, entity that produces the report, in an event chaired by Fernando Seco, executive vice-president of the professional association. The report, prepared by education experts from the European Society and Education Foundation, “details the main data of the 2023/2024 school year and examines the situation and evolution of the national education system in general and the Andalusian one in particular, analyzing indicators. such as schooling, resources, results and employability.
The report reveals, according to Cesur, that the repeat rate in Andalusia is 9.2%, “the third highest community, even though it has improved by 8.8 points over the last ten years“. In addition, Andalusia presented data on early school leaving in 2023 of 16.8%, “a worsening of 1.5 percentage points compared to the previous year (15.3%) and three points compared to the Spanish average (13.9%), and 7.8 points to reach the level. European target of 9%. Combined with the “regression” of the gross graduation rate at ESO and the “stagnation” of the level of the population between 20 and 29 years old (73.1%) who reach the second cycle of secondary school, “this could lead to a slowdown or slowdown in the evolution of the improvement”, warns the study.
In fact, Miguel Ángel Sancho assured that “the main data on the situation and evolution of the Spanish and Andalusian educational system that we present in a comparative and longitudinal perspective allow us to appreciate an improvement over the last ten years. However, in Andalusia there is still a high number of people without a secondary education among the population between 25 and 64 years old, 42.6% (Baccalaureate or CFGM), which corresponds to a high unemployment rate, 23%.
Net schooling of children
Regarding enrollment figures, the net enrollment rate in early childhood education at 2 years of age in Andalusia for the 2022/2023 school year is the third highest with 80.3%, with an increase of 22.7 percentage points over the last ten yearswhile it is the third lowest at 17 years old with 79.8%. For its part, the gross enrollment rate in CFGS for the 2022-2023 school year in Andalusia is 52.2%. In the last decade, Andalusia has increased it by 24.3 percentage points.
Furthermore, 81.2% obtain tenure after four years. As for students enrolled in “classic” vocational training, they total 154,480 students and in dual, 12,561, or 7.5%, “the fourth highest community”. Andalusia records a student/teacher ratio of 11.3, “the fourth highest in the country”. Compared to the 2012/2013 school year, “in all regions or cities, the ratio has decreased” while in Andalusia, it has dropped by 1.5 points. Regarding economic investment, the report indicates that the level of public spending per public student in Andalusia (6,367 euros) increased by 589 euros compared to the previous year, although “it remains the penultimate lowest”.
In terms of employability, the unemployment rates in 2023 in the population aged 25 to 64 by level of education in Andalusia are 23.5% lower in secondary education and 15.7% lower in upper secondary education. In addition, with 15.3%, The rate of population aged 15 to 29 who neither study nor work in Andalusia is “one of the highest rates” despite the fact that it has decreased by 12.8 percentage points over the last decade.
The document also includes data on PISA 2022, which indicates that Andalusia is once again below the national average in the three skills assessed, mathematics, reading and science, although the difference with the results of the last edition of 2015 has decreased. In reading skills, girls outperform boys by 24 points. In mathematics, young men outperform women by eleven points.
In Spain, the difference in scores between native and immigrant students was 52 points. In Andalusia the gap was only 19 points. “This is significantly lower than in most other regions and shows that immigration status does not have as much of an impact on performance as in other regions,” the report adds.
