The ability of Catalonia's teenagers to use the Catalan language continues a gradual decline. In the tests of basic skills given to students of 4th ESO, that is, aged 15-16, results have fallen for the third straight year. The overall average in the 2023 tests is 72.3 points, 1.8 points less than in 2022. Thus, a downward trend continues in secondary schools: these are the worst results in the last 10 years. However, the same pattern is not exactly replicated in primary schools. Younger students have improved their knowledge of Catalan slightly compared to those of the previous year, with 72.7 points, 0.2 more. Nevertheless, the 2023 and 2022 Catalan scores in primary schools still remain as the worst results in the last 10 years. The pattern is not the same across alI Catalan skills, however: for example, in reading comprehension, ESO students improve compared to previous years. All of this is included in the results of these annual tests, which have been presented by the Catalan education ministry.
As for the Spanish language, at secondary level the situation is similar to Catalan, where skill levels fall even more. Knowledge of Spanish this year dropped by 3.6 points to 71.6 points. And unlike the Catalan language in primary school, Spanish has not recovered and falls 1.9 points compared to last year, to 71.2 points.
Improvements in English and mathematics
On the other hand, Catalan students have improved their English and mathematics skills over the 2022 scores. English returns to pre-pandemic levels in primary school with 77.8 points, 0.9 up. English has also bounced back in the 4th year of secondary school after falling results in recent years, and it registers 73.9 points this year. The improvement in mathematics does not rescue the subject from the long term decline in competency that has been seen since the pandemic and it remains at 73.6 (2.5 points more than last year) in primary and 62.3 (1.2 points more) in secondary.
The president of Catalonia's Higher Council for Evaluation of the Educational System, Carles Vega, was nevertheless very positive about the fact that in many skills, downward trends have been broken: "We are going up in certain skills unlike other territories in the international arena where they do this assessment". However, she recognizes that there are areas where there is room for improvement.
Improvement actions
The education ministry has presented different measures aimed at improving results, focusing on various points in the education system, especially with regard to the skills that have shown long-term downward trends, in language and mathematics areas. Some of these measures were already implemented last year. Among them, the individualized advice campaign stands out, carried out by the inspectorate in all Catalan schools, but more intensively in the 250 centres with the most room for improvement. In addition, from the department's educational services, this year integrated support between the psycho-pedagogical counseling teams (EAP), language and cohesion teams (LIC) and psycho-pedagogical resource centers (CRP) begins. Self-diagnosis materials will be provided to 200 centres chosen according to criteria of results in the basic competencies, context and situation of the school educational plan.