Little by little, Spain is closing its educational gap with the EU. At least in large numbers. In recent years, the system has been welcoming more and more people, and younger and younger people, who are going further, repeating fewer years and finding better jobs. But the pace of improvement is slowing and, in many indicators, the country still lags behind its European peers, according to the report. Education Overviewpublished annually by the OECD.
Spanish education is relatively fair, with the aim of serving everyone – and improving its indicators – but it still leaves people behind, and they are usually the same as always, the most disadvantaged families. On the positive side of the system, the rates of young people with higher education and those of children under two years of age in school are increasing, both above the EU and OECD averages. Those who have not even completed secondary education or those who are neither studying nor working are also decreasing, but both remain far from the countries around us. However, the repeat rate is still triple the European average in secondary education, and those who are excluded from certain educational services such as early childhood education are those who need it most, the most vulnerable families.
“The data is not bad and it is not complacency. We have a fairly positive scenario in some indicators, others that we need to improve,” said the new Secretary of State for Education, Abelardo de la Rosa, at a press conference.
Good at the top, bad at the bottom
More than half of young people aged 25-34 (52%) have completed tertiary education (university or higher vocational training), four points higher than the OECD and almost eight points better than the EU. Seven years ago, this figure was 41%, an improvement that “has particularly benefited women”, De la Rosa said.
But the positive in the data above becomes negative below. One in four young people has not even completed secondary education (25.7%), a rate that has improved by 9 percentage points since 2016, but which is not even close to comparable countries: the European average is 12.3%. The Secretary of State described this figure as “worrying” and classified it among the “challenges” of the system.
The statistics on the level of education deteriorate considerably if, instead of considering the youth group, we consider the entire population (25-64 years): the advantage of higher education graduates disappears and the disadvantage of people without a secondary education multiplies. But the evolution of both parameters allows us to conclude that the situation is progressing and that the deficit inherited from the dictatorship and the transition is being resolved – more and more slowly, of course.
Something similar happens with people who neither study nor work. The data improve every year, but they are running out of steam and the gap is not narrowing. Almost one in five citizens is in this situation (17.8%), a statistic that reached almost one in four (23.2%) seven years ago. The European average is 13.8%. “This rate is not good, it is too high and it takes us away from the OECD. Although the trend is positive, we must continue to correct it,” said De la Rosa.
The repetition anomaly
The OECD also notes the anomaly that Spain represents in terms of repeating, a controversial element. Our country almost triples some average indicators in this section: in Spain, there are 2.1% of repeaters in primary school, 7.8% in lower secondary school and 6.5% in upper secondary school. In neighbouring countries, these figures are 1.5%, 2.2% and 3.2%.
Repeating a course generates tense debates within the educational community between those who believe that it is an unnecessary measure, that it consumes a lot of resources with little efficiency, and those who believe that we cannot raise our hands just so that more people pass the year. “Its effectiveness is debated,” states the OECD in its report.
The government has undertaken to reduce the rate of repeating a year, an area in which Spain has historically excelled (for the worse), and has included in the Lomloe Law measures aimed at reducing the numbers. And it is succeeding, even though today one in four 15-year-olds is not in the class that corresponds to their age.
Spain also does not stand out in terms of the number of students per class, another of the great demands of teachers. In the country’s classrooms, there are on average 20 students per class in public centers and 23 in private centers, a figure higher than the OECD average (which is 21 and 20) and the EU (19 and 18). The system has the particularity that the classes in private centers have more students than those in public centers.
Early childhood education is growing
One of the strengths of the system – at least in the broadest sense – is early childhood education. Spain has opted for this stage in recent years and the figures support the investment (largely financed by Europe). With the 3-6 cycle already universalized although not compulsory, 30% of children under 2 and 64% of those between 2 and 3 years old are in school, both rates higher than the OECD, which is 18% and 42%, respectively.
The problem of this stage arises when the analysis is refined: not all this expansion has been carried out from public squares. There are communities, such as Andalusia, that have even done so by giving up public funds so as not to harm private centers; In the city of Madrid, thousands of families find themselves without public places every year.
Whether or not a person attends a nursery school can affect their educational future, as research shows: among those who did not attend, 24% have poor future results. For those who were able to attend, the same indicator drops to 6%. “Participation in early childhood education is particularly important for boys and girls from disadvantaged families,” the OECD points out. And yet, in Spain, families in the lowest income tertile have a 39% probability of attending a childcare centre, while among the richest families this probability rises to 59%.
Teaching staff: salaries in the high range
The report – 160 pages of data of all kinds – also dedicates a section to teachers, and the organization concludes that they are better paid than in other countries, although it takes more years to reach the maximum salary. In fact, according to the OECD, Spanish teachers are among the best paid, especially at the beginning of their career. In figures that no teacher will recognize on their payroll because they are adjusted to dollars and converted to purchasing power parity to be able to compare, a teacher earns between 51,280 dollars and 73,536 in Primary depending on their experience and between 52,427 and 82,112 in Secondary, figures that range from 30% more than the European average (again, comparatively) in the early years to 10% at the end of their career.
But, the OECD continues, a better salary is accompanied by a greater number of class hours, although a lower number of total working hours. Spanish teachers teach 854 hours of lessons per year in primary schools and 656 in secondary schools, more than the EU average of 703 and 630 hours respectively. However, Spanish teachers have a total annual working day of 1,406 hours, a figure lower than the European figure (1,527). This means that they have less time to do everything that is not teaching: preparing lessons, marking, bureaucracy, tutoring, etc.
Does having less time to prepare classes influence the quality of teaching? De la Rosa did not want to evaluate this circumstance: “We do not have indicators” to verify it, he clarified the question.
