When journalists get pretentious, we say that news is everything that the powerful do not want to be known and, when we are more realistic, we conclude that it is everything that represents a novelty and draws attention. That is why a bombshell news would have been if the PISA report released yesterday had ruled that students had improved their educational level and had many more intellectual skills than their predecessors. However, what was known was quite the opposite. It is not news, but it is a scandal.
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I make Susana Quadrado’s article in the Society section my own, where she directly exposes some of the problems that have led to this situation. The abandonment of the culture of effort, the loss of teacher authority, the consolidation of gifted passes that allow students to move on to the next grade, the misuse of technology, or the usual changes in curricula are factors that have influenced these results. And then we have domestic education, the one taught in the family environment, which is as or more important than school education, and in which some parents have abdicated their responsibilities.
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The poor results of the PISA report affect all of Spain, where there are communities like Asturias, Madrid, or Castilla y León that are above the national average. The data from Catalonia are not comparable because a very high percentage of students with poor curricula were excluded, but if the study had been done properly, the results would also have been negative.
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In this context, the coincidence of the report with the teachers’ strike in Catalonia is very bad news. That was the last thing needed. It is difficult to get out of the vicious circle in which the unions and the Administration have settled, and where no one seems willing to give in. One solution would be to try to reach a broad political agreement that would lead to the creation of a committee with the best teachers and educators to promote the necessary educational reform. Something like what has happened in healthcare with the Cairos committee. The changes required by the education system should not be mixed with union demands.
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