The ninth edition of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), published on Tuesday, has once again measured the ability of 15-year-old students to apply what they have learned to real-world problems. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which is responsible for the study, placed Spain below the average of the 91 participating countries.
The analysis also showed that, compared with 2015, the proportion of low-performing students increased by 11 percentage points in mathematics, 15 percentage points in reading and six percentage points in science. Across the OECD, an estimated 29% of 15-year-olds in the countries analysed perform poorly in all three subjects assessed.
MATHEMATICS
Spain scored 457 points in mathematics, 16 fewer than in the previous report, in 2022, when it scored 473. The report from a decade ago (2015), which may have reflected the effects of the government “cuts” under Mariano Rajoy, recorded a score of 486, 29 points higher than today. Spanish students also scored eight points below the average mark achieved by their OECD peers in this latest report.
Asian students dominated mathematics, with a Chinese region at the top and 97% of students reaching the required level. In Spain, the proportion of students reaching that level was 67%.
This means that, at a minimum, these students are “able to interpret and recognise, without direct instructions, how a simple situation can be represented mathematically (for example, comparing the total distance of two alternative routes or converting prices into another currency)”.
READING
Spanish students also performed worse in reading comprehension. Spain scored 451 points, compared with the average of 463, and fell 54 points short of its score a decade ago (496) and 23 points below the 2022 report (474). It should also be taken into account that the past two five-year periods have seen a technological and digital revolution that has filled the lives of younger people with devices and screens, which according to some studies reduces their attention span and classroom performance.
Nevertheless, 68% of Spanish students reached the desired level, compared with 93% in Singapore, which topped the ranking in this category.
At the average reading level, students must be able to “identify the main idea in a moderately long text, locate information based on explicit criteria” and “reflect on the purpose and form of texts when explicitly instructed to do so”.
SCIENCE
The percentage in science was higher, as 76% of Spanish students reached the required level, compared with 97% of students in China. Spain scored 477 points in this area, compared with 493 in 2015 and 485 in the 2022 PISA report, representing declines of 24 and eight points respectively. The ODE average is 484 points.
This presupposes that students are able to “recognise the correct explanation of everyday scientific phenomena and use that knowledge to determine, in simple cases, whether a conclusion is valid based on the data provided”. More than 85% of students in the highest-performing systems are in Chinese regions; Singapore, Estonia, Japan and Korea also achieved results.
However, the report itself noted that 12% of the schools initially scheduled for the study in Murcia and 23% of the schools initially eligible for analysis in Catalonia were excluded, “which may result in an upward bias”. Thus, the data for Spain are based on an analysis of 29,967 students from 956 schools, representing around 459,800 15-year-old students, approximately 88% of the population of that age.
The full report is based on data from more than 760,000 students in 91 countries and economies and includes new evidence on how students use Artificial Intelligence (AI) in their schoolwork.
For example, 46% of OECD students use AI chatbots at least once a week to support their learning, and 28% say their classmates are distracted by using digital devices during most or all science classes.
