The equation of educational disaster in Catalonia

The result is clear: an educational system (E) that is collapsing

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Aurora Trigo Catalina

Some say that mathematics is not useful in real life, but let me contradict that statement: nothing like a simple equation to illustrate the monumental mess of the Catalan educational system. Here we have a direct formula:

E = (C + I)/A

E: Education; C: Knowledge; I: Investments in education; A: Political arbitrariness

If we’e living in a general disdain for knowledge (C) and we add then the fact of insufficient investments (I), and then we divide it by an excess of political arbitrariness (A), the result is clear: an educational system (E) that is collapsing. Indeed, if we look at the PISA 2022 tests, Catalonia’s results have been the worst in history in the three skills evaluated (reading, science and mathematics). Catalan students have lost the equivalent of an entire year in mathematics and almost two in reading comprehension in the last 10 years, placing them at the bottom of Spain ranking. In addition, the latest TIMSS 2023 report, which assesses the mathematical skills of 4th grade primary school students in 59 countries around the world, shows that Catalonia is below the Spanish average and far from the European and OECD average. Finally, in the PIRLS 2021  study, carried out in 57 countries around the world, Catalan students in 4th grade of primary school plummet in reading comprehension.

Excuses, obviously, did not tahe long to come. Firstly, the cause was the foreign inmigrated students and, of course, the pandemic. It was also said that the sample was not “perfect”, according to the Catalan Department of Education itself. Wouldn’t anyone wonder about? Perhaps we should include our governors and education advisers as examples to illustrate the principle of contradiction in logic textbooks. But let’s try to explain the real causes of the Catalan educational mess with our equation.

Disdain for knowledge (C)

Here we have the first key ingredient of the equation: disdain for knowledge. This disdain is not at all incidental; it is rather a deliberate attitude. It is as though someone in the Catalan education board had read a manual on “how to dismantle an educational system in ten steps” and had since then enthusiastically devoted to this goal.

Let’s be clear: working on projects is like making bread without yeast; it may seem innovative at first, but the results are dull and unfunctional. Students research, debate and present work. Fantastic! But what if they lack a solid foundation to understand what they are researching? Ah, minor details.

Traditional knowledge – you know, old-fashioned demands as learning history, literature or science – seems to have become a privilege. Let’s look back a bit: over the last 10 years, «project based learning» has become an increasingly widespread practice in Catalonia. Any knowledge that has no applied or instrumental value is not essential and can be dispensed with. In addition, knowledge of subjects such as philosophy, ethics or history are losing hours in the high school curriculum. The new idea of ​​the Department has been, for the 2025-26 academic year, to make some high school subjects that until now were compulsory (Catalan literature and Castilian literature) optional. In science, the loss of knowledge is drastically reduced. The subjects of Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geology, which during the 2021-2022 academic year had 4 hours per week in the first year of high school, will be merged into just two: Physics and Chemistry on the one hand, and Biology and Geology on the other (with 3 hours per week each). Criticism of this new idea its widespreading. But don’t worry, because the quarterly optional subject “Current Scientific Challenges” will surely transform our young people into geniuses capable of solving climate change with a couple of PowerPoints.

Apart from the above curricular changes, the loss of knowledge is also related to the decrease in the use of textbooks. The Digital Education Plan of Catalonia 2020-2023 -Pla d’educació digital de Catalunya 2020-2023- wanted to contribute to the development of digital skills after the pandemic. A computer was given to each student between 3rd year of ESO and 2nd year of high school. These computers were financed by the Next Generation Fund of the European Union and meant, for most subjects, the disappearance of textbooks in Catalan high schools.

In the book Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, the firemen had to burn the books. The obsession of the government of this imaginary society was to gain an absolute control the population, who could only learn what they saw on television. Right now, the Department of Education seems to act as a knowledge firefighters, replacing paper books with computers. Some teachers, with a clear vocation and overflowing skills, remain in the shadow of what is happening, explaining what they can, without books. Most of them watch their students staring at their screens with their eyes lost in the digital cosmos, with the difficult challenge of preserving their psychic integrity and, in the best of cases, giving them some “pills of knowledge”. Many times, they cannot even take memorized exams, and they are forced to pass them, lest they be frustrated by a failure.

Faced with this disdain for knowledge, pedagogues have replaced teachers in the planning of educational curricula. This oligarchy currently designs the new educational model and justifies its existence with verbiage with touches of delusions of grandeur, multiplying its implementation in the organs of power of the Department. They ask us for useless papers, to justify an objective to which they seem to have dedicated their lives: the happiness of the students and their emotional stability.

But the decline in knowledge squares, according to a study by the Fundació Bofill  it seems to be something different: the teachers lack of training. My goodness! Let us imagine for a moment that this were true. Then the Department should remedy this by offering training courses to ignorant teachers. We have carried out an experiment to check if, in fact, our “bosses” are remedying our incompetence. We have searched the official website that offers training courses to teachers. At the time of writing this article, there is a completely non-existent offer of courses in the subject of philosophy; there are only 3 courses in social sciences; we have 15 in mathematics; only 12 in science and 36 in language and literature. But we are saved! We have 41 courses on emotional well-being; 107 on curriculum and new methodologies and 355 on digital competence.

Lack of investment in education (I)

The economic resources invested in education (I) also affect educational results (E). With less money, the ratios of students per teacher rise, the stability of the staff falls and there are no resources for inclusive school. Obviously, a teacher has to take care and teach 30 students and, at the same time, discovering the meaning of life. It’s pure educational multitasking!

Investing in education, apparently, is a too radical idea to be implemented. It is enough to confirm this by nothing that there are still 961 schools with classrooms-barracks? These are the educational equivalent of a folding sofa: yes, they may technically work, but nobody chooses them for fun, but just in case there is no a better option. And right now, Catalonia is the autonomous community in Spain with the most temporary classroom-barracks. These prefabricated buildings make it possible to meet the demographic demand of that specific moment without a large investment, with more ambient noise, high/low temperatures and inadequate spaces to carry out certain activities (physical education, laboratories, libraries or dining rooms).

We also lack educational professionals to deal with the most troubled students or those with psychological problems. The department carried out two studies on these conflicts in 2000 and 2005, where an increase in physical, sexual and psychological aggression was detected, as well as an increase in the number of students who admit to having brought weapons to class. Despite the seriousness of these events and the importance of continuing this study, the truth is that nothing more has been done. But don’t worry, we already have the solution! There is the figure of COCOBE, a creation as practical as a bicycle with only one wheel. A ridiculous  “botch job” that cannot hide the absolute lack of investment in specialist professionals in  health field and psychologists in the educational centres of Catalonia.

Increase in educational arbitrariness (A)

Here we enter the field of centre autonomy, a magnificent idea that has ended up becoming the favorite instrument directors with delusions of grandeur. Staff decrees and management decrees are the cause of the greatest arbitrariness of the Catalan education system. If you have a friend who is a director, perfect! If not, you might end up teaching art when your field is philosophy. Ah, meritocracy, what an overrated concept!

But the best of all are the changing laws. The LOMCE, the LOE, the LOMLOE… Each new educational reform is like a chapter of a Netflix series: you can’t get hooked since you don’t know what will happen next. But one thing is certain: the students are the guinea pigs of these experiments, and collective frustration is the only constant result.

Conclusions

It is true that today education is done with a better quality and conditions than a century ago and that most teachers passionately believe in education as a source of improvement for humanity. Many of us will continue to fight against the educational disarray that leaves the most vulnerable unprotected, because we believe that schools and institutes are social elevators for the most disadvantaged adolescents.

Catalonia has not only written a black page in the books of educational results, but it seems determined to bind an entire volume. While teachers struggle to work miracles in the classrooms, the Department of Education continues to perfect its formula for disaster. In the end, perhaps the only knowledge we are promoting is that of passive resistance, because there is nothing more educational than surviving a system that seems to actively work against you.

Source: educational EVIDENCE

Rights: Creative Commons