The government will include in the general budget plan for this year, which it plans to present in a month, once it has secured the support of investiture partners, a plan to strengthen mathematics and reading comprehension, the two aspects in which Spanish students of recent years have learned In the last PISA report, the most setbacks were recorded in the ESO year. The measure announced by Pedro Sánchez at the conclave that the Socialists are holding this weekend in A Coruña will have a budget of more than 500 million euros and will benefit 4.7 million students. According to government sources, it will cover students from the third year of primary school to the fourth year of compulsory secondary education (ESO).
“We will not stop, especially in education. In the current times we live in, it is important that we realize, in light of the OECD reports, that despite the best efforts of students and teachers, there are issues that are difficult to crack. And that is why the government will prepare a plan for all the young people who study in our country today,” announced Pedro Sánchez at the end of the PSOE political congress in A Coruña. The district president has emphasized his commitment to implementing this plan “hand in hand with the educational community”. The board will meet with the school board next week.
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The plan announced by Sánchez will be divided into three areas. The first will take place during school hours, reducing the number of students per classroom and hiring more teachers. Outside school hours there will be support teachers for students with difficulties. The third pillar will be a teacher training plan to adapt them and acquire more knowledge for teaching mathematics.
Pedro Sánchez, during his speech this Sunday in A Coruña. OSCAR CORRAL
The measure announced by Sánchez is not surprising after the poor results of the PISA diagnostic tests, in which Spain fell behind, although to a lesser extent than the European average. Spanish students have lost 8 points in mathematics in the last year of the ESO compared to the previous edition in 2018, in which they were already falling sharply, remaining at 473. In reading comprehension they fell back by three points to 474. And they are up two points in science, namely 485.
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This week Finland, no longer considered an education benchmark after several failed editions of PISA, announced it will increase teaching hours in primary school to improve reading, math and writing. Finland is one of the countries in the world where students receive the fewest hours of education.
Last December, the Royal Academy had already called for action in a document in which it denounced a “relaxation in the level of students in Spanish language and literature”. “Young people understand what they read, but they are unable to argue, summarize the main idea and they cannot express themselves fluently orally,” explained academic Ignacio Bosque. This criticism was not well received within the Department of Education, which considered that it was a report “based on 15 reports from staff”. [en referencia a la información sobre la que se sustenta el texto]which expresses an opinion that lacks data and is in any case biased.” The RAE had already criticized the so-called Celaá law for its excessive impact on the student's skills development, to the detriment of memorization.
Many experts link language deficits to the habits of children and young people who spend more and more time in front of screens. “Reading would be the perfect exercise for children to regain control of their ability to concentrate. It is a battle worth fighting in schools in the face of so many tablets,” said language and literature teacher Miguel Salas in this newspaper this July.
Experts also called for action in mathematics. A study of 115,000 students in Catalonia who took a diagnostic test (largely applicable to Spain as a whole) has just shown that no student who does poorly in the subject in primary school catches up in secondary school. And almost everyone who did well gets worse when they move on to THIS. And this subject is central to students' training in technical professions, an area where there is a shortage of skilled workers and which is central to the country's development.
The Bofill Foundation, which has analyzed these data in a report, considers it necessary, as Sánchez announced this Sunday, to double the teaching of mathematics, with no more than 10 students per class in standard centers (during 80% of classes). may be present. , and only in five institutions classified as high complex in run-down neighborhoods. But the ratio will likely be higher, as secondary school classrooms typically have up to 30 students.
The PP criticizes the plan
The plan announced by Sánchez was criticized this morning by the PP, for which this announcement means that the government “accepts the shortcomings of its model” by admitting that it needs extraordinary reinforcement. “The delay of our students in mathematics and reading is the responsibility of a socialist education model that enshrines the law of minimum effort,” since “the student is allowed to pass the course with failed subjects and without acquiring the necessary knowledge,” sources assure . the party of Alberto Núñez Feijóo. They assure that this reinforcement system announced by the President of the Government “has been applied for years in the Autonomous Communities of the PP, which always lead the PISA reports”. “The main problem of education in Spain is the successive educational reforms and counter-reforms that the PSOE has implemented. “A Sánchez accustomed to failure has condemned our students to do the same,” the aforementioned popular media added.
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