The government's solution to improve the level in schools: ask the State for money

The Catalan educational system is going through one of its most critical moments, with worrying results in key skills such as reading comprehension. As a result of these disastrous outcomes, the Generalitat has now chosen to request more funding from the central State. Specifically, the Govern has demanded an increase in the allocation for the Reading Competence Reinforcement Program.

The Education Minister, Esther Niubó, has explained that the Generalitat is seeking a greater allocation of resources for this program. The minister speaks of taking into account the "uniqueness of the Catalan educational and linguistic model." The Department of Education has insisted that the current allocation, which amounts to €10.2 million for the entire State, is not enough to address the problems that Catalonia faces in education.

The data revealed by the PISA 2023 report have shown that Catalonia is at the bottom in terms of reading comprehension. Catalan teenagers received an average score of 462 points in reading, compared to the 500 points recorded in 2015. This drop has been corroborated by other studies. For example, there's PIRLS, which places Catalonia among the regions with the worst results in reading comprehension at the national level.

Money, but no debate

Despite this new purely financial measure from the Govern, the debate about the educational system and its pedagogical model remains intact. In fact, the expression "uniqueness of the Catalan educational and linguistic model" is a euphemism referring to one of the basic challenges of Catalan education. This refers, of course, to the high percentage of newly arrived foreign students in classrooms.

As in so many other areas, this is one of the factors that explain the strain on many public services in Catalonia. Just a few weeks ago, it was reported that Catalonia had to manage the arrival of 9,000 new students each month. Considering that many of these young people do not speak Spanish or Catalan, the results in reading comprehension speak for themselves.

In response, several figures from the progressive sphere tried to blur the debate by saying that all these new students were simply changes of enrollment between schools ("matrícula viva"). This turned out to be a clear "fake news" that E-Notícies confirmed. The reason is as simple as the Department of Education stating that they did not know what % of native or foreign students are included in "matrícula viva."