Spanish students are more than two academic courses behind the Chinese in the PISA report

• Study: Spain is the country where students have the greatest feeling of belonging to the school of the entire OECD
• Opinion: Estonia and Poland replace Finland in educational excellence
• Controversy: The shadows of PISA: Should we believe the report after the errors detected?
• Errors: The Community of Madrid asks the OECD to withdraw the entire PISA report for "errors of a considerable caliber": "The whole test is contaminated"

Among the note taken in Mathematics by Spanish students who last year performed the PISA Report tests and that achieved by students who underwent this same exam in some areas of China there are more than 110 points . In the language of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) , this distance is translated, making a very conservative estimate, in a delay for Spaniards of more than two academic courses, almost three, which means that, if a 15-year-old Spaniard is going to study in Beijing or Shanghai , he will find that his level there is that of the 13 or 12 year old kids. On the contrary, the Asian quinceanera will live up to a Spanish university student.

Something similar happens in Science , with a gap of 107 points between the Asian country and ours. They are the contrasts of this international test that has spread this Tuesday in half the world: China, the territory that obtains the best results, is growing at high speed while Spain has not improved for years. In comparison with the last edition, in fact, we have worsened. In Science ( 483 ) we have fallen 9.5 points and we have been placed in the blushing group of countries where "most students have become weaker." In Mathematics ( 481 ), we are more or less equal, since the five-point decline is not statistically significant. In both tests we are, in any case, below the OECD average ( 489 ).

In Spain, the Reading results have not been published this year because errors have been found that affect 5% of the students. In Mathematics and Science they seem "less affected by this anomaly", although this will have to be confirmed by a subsequent analysis. The Community of Madrid requested that these results be withdrawn also because it ensures that all data is "contaminated" by Reading failures. This region, precisely, has been a huge blow: lost 29 points in Science and 20 in Mathematics. Leading the Spanish top goes to the platoon, with the Balearic Islands and Castilla-La Mancha .

But let's go in parts and talk first of Spain, because the PISA Report pulls our ears, above all, because we have few excellent students compared to the average ( 7% versus 11% in Mathematics and 4% versus 7% in Science) Asian countries stand out precisely on this issue (China with 44% , Singapore with 37% , Hong Kong with 29% ). In return, our rate of mediocre students is similar to the average. One in four Spanish students is below level 2 of a total of 6 in Mathematics, which means that, at 15 years old, he cannot compare the distances between two alternative routes or convert different currencies. It could be said that Spain is, in general, at level 3.

How do experts interpret this data? Ismael Sanz , Professor of Applied Economics at the Rey Juan Carlos University, who coordinated the test at the Ministry of Education when he governed the PP, warns that "we had never had such a low record in Science", a decrease that "is also observed in the OECD average. " José Saturnino Martínez García , Professor of Sociology at the University of La Laguna, notes that "we are stuck" when "the predictable thing would be for us to grow."

"We have been with PISA for 18 years and the results remain stable despite what the country has changed in these years. In each generation, the educational level of the population is rising and one would expect that the improvement in the level of studies of mothers it would revert to an improvement of the students, but this is not happening, "says the author of Equity and education .

This edition of PISA is useful because it measures for the first time the Lomce generation , analyzes in depth the performance of the boys who have been with the economic crisis for the longest time and also evaluates how they have done the teenagers who have grown the most with smartphones , according to recalls Lucas Gortázar , analyst at the World Bank. But Martínez García is increasingly clear that "the economic crisis does not seem to have an impact on the results."

On the effect of the screens in adolescents, little light casts PISA in Spain, as the Reading data is not public, but worldwide it analyzes how habits have changed between 2009 and 2018, revealing that the number of students reading has increased Only if they are forced. In addition, the percentage of those who read newspapers has dropped from 60% to 25% , while the number of those who read news online has grown from 70% to 80% . This year, the tests are done in full by computer.

And the Lomce? Are these results the finding that the reform devised by José Ignacio Wert has been a fiasco? "We would have to wait longer," replies Martínez García. "It's hard to say, because there are regions like Galicia and Castilla y León , which have applied the Lomce and are doing very well," says Ismael Sanz.

Galicia is the great revelation of this edition of PISA, because its results in Science ( 510 ) are at the height of Poland and far ahead of the rest of the autonomous communities, although it has dropped two points compared to 2015. If you look the different communities, according to Martínez García, "the division between the north and the south is maintained." Between Galicia and the Canary Islands , which is the worst one ( 470 , at the level of Ukraine and Turkey ) there is at least one academic course away. The results obtained by Ceuta ( 415 ) and Melilla ( 439 ) are at the level of developing countries.

In Mathematics, it is seen that there is a first group of countries - Navarra (503) and Castilla y León (502) - at the head, comparable to Finland , Sweden or Norway . Then the Basque Country (499) and Cantabria (499) -which have improved- arrive, with Galicia (498), La Rioja (497) and Aragón (497), also with good results. In a third level, Asturias (491), Catalonia (490), Madrid (486) and Balearic Islands (483) remain, a little above the Spanish average. Below, in a bad position, are Murcia (474), the Valencian Community (473), Extremadura (470), Andalusia (467) and the Canary Islands (460).

This pattern is repeated more or less similarly in Science and the constant is that, with exceptions, most of the autonomous communities have worsened, some around 20 points.

Internationally, it is surprising how the East Asian countries have emerged, taking off from the rest of the OECD. There is an elite education that monopolizes Asia, "where students get a lot of pressure and are being trained in this type of test," according to Martínez García. In Europe, the best ones are Estonia, Holland, Poland and Switzerland. Finland, despite its worldwide educational success, continues to lose positions, one more year. In countries like Canada or Germany they are worried because, although they are still in good place, they have worsened.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• PISA report
• Education
• society
• Spain

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