Just over half of Spaniards, 52.1%, believe that today's school is worse than that of their time, while 47.1% think it is better. The opinion is even more pessimistic when they are asked how prepared they consider the students to be compared to when they studied: 55.2% respond that it is worse, and 44.8%, 10 points less, that it is better. Both responses are part of a large survey, based on 7,016 interviews, on society's vision of the educational system that the Cotec Foundation commissioned from the 40db agency and was presented this Thursday.
The impression that citizens have, Cotec warns in its conclusions document, does not correspond to what the data says when comparing the current situation with that of past decades, when the rates of failure and early school leaving were much higher. and the educational level of the population, much lower. The survey also reflects enormous support for increasing the education budget, for which the majority of the population claims to be willing to pay more taxes.
The results contain important generational and territorial differences. The most optimistic are the young people. 68.9% of those between 16 and 24 years old, and 55.5% of those between 25 and 34, believe that the current school is better than theirs (which can be considered a bit paradoxical in the case of those of 16 who, if they have not repeated, have just finished ESO). The second most positive view is offered by those over 65 years of age: 46.9% say that it is better now, and 53.1%, that it has gotten worse. And the most critical age groups are the intermediate ones, especially those between 45 and 54 years old, which largely coincides with the fathers and mothers of the current students: 61.8% judge that it is worse, and 38. 2%, what better.
The differences by community are also very pronounced. Between Navarrese (60% think that the school has improved) and their Aragonese neighbors (39%) there is a gap of 21 points. None of the communities where optimists are the majority – apart from Navarra, the Basque Country (58%), the Canary Islands (52%) and Catalonia (51%) – are presided over by the PP, which is in charge of 11 of the 17 autonomies. On the most pessimistic side are also the Balearic Islands (41%) and Murcia (42%).
Ainara Zubillaga, director of education at the Cotec Foundation, a non-profit entity that includes large companies and public organizations, was not surprised by the results, given the tone of the public debate around the issue. although it does not share the landscape they draw. “I do not believe that we have a disastrous educational system, much less do I think that any time in the past was better. But it seems to me that it is a slap on the wrist for us, as a sector. We are dedicated to pedagogy, but we have not been able to convey something so that the population has these opinions, in which things are mixed.” The marked division, almost in equal parts, between those who believe that the school is better and worse than in their time is not unrelated, Zubillaga continues, “to the framework of extremely high political polarization” that Spain experiences, in which “education is used recurrently as a weapon.”
The Cotec document points out that, despite the negative perception about the current educational level reflected in the survey, “the data says exactly the opposite,” and gives two examples. In 1977, 90% of the adult population had a training level lower than the second stage of secondary education—that is, what would today be high school and intermediate vocational training—and that percentage is now around 35%. And while around 1990 early school leaving reached almost half of young people, last year it had been reduced to 13.6%.
The survey analyzes a third differentiating factor regarding the opinion that Spaniards have of the school. Among those with low educational levels—those who obtained at most the old school graduation, which was given at the end of the EGB, or, in current terms, those who passed the maximum second of the ESO—, 55.9% believe that Education has improved. Among those who completed at most high school or intermediate vocational training, opinion is divided almost in half (49.5% versus 50.5%). And among those with higher education, the percentage is reduced to 44.6% (for those who obtained diplomas and higher vocational training degrees) and 43% (bachelors, degrees, masters and doctorates).
Despite the lack of reforms that Spain could be considered to have experienced in recent decades, 75.4% of citizens consider “a transformation of the educational system to be urgent.” The vast majority, 87.5%, defend increasing the education budget. And, what is probably more significant, 55.6% say that they would be willing to pay more taxes for this increase to take place. Where they would be most willing to do so would be in Extremadura (64%), Asturias (60%), Galicia (60%) and Euskadi (59%). And among those least, with 52%, Castilla-La Mancha, Aragon, the Balearic Islands and Catalonia.
When asked to identify in what way the school has worsened, 74.2% consider that “students who do not want to be there” now attend it and that this “makes it difficult for the rest to learn.” An almost identical proportion, 74.1%, believes that now “there is no discipline” and that “students do not respect teachers as before.”
Among those surveyed who are teachers or have employees linked to the educational system – such as “work and social education professionals” or “child caretakers in daycare centers and educational centers” -, which account for 9% of the participants, the opinion that Now there are students who do not want to be in the classrooms and do not let others learn increases even more, up to 79.6%.
Education professionals generally have a more positive opinion of the system, however. 51% believe that the school is better today; 70%, that the teachers are better trained (when in the general population 60% think so); 74%, that the school environment is closer and more participatory (compared to 61%), and consider to a much lesser extent that now the “school indoctrinates by entering into family issues” (36% compared to 48.4%).
The Cotec document highlights that the academic performance of students “is perceived as an individual phenomenon.” That is to say, when it comes to pointing out what factors influence students achieving good educational results, Spaniards attach great importance to the fact that they have “good teachers” (92.3%), as well as to their “personal effort.” ” (91.7%), about which there is little doubt. But, on the other hand, they give unjustifiably less importance (if we take into account what educational research reflects) to elements such as children belonging to homes of medium and high economic and cultural level, which is pointed out by 55%.
Citizens also consider that “the support and involvement of the family” influences performance, in descending order (91.7%); having good classmates (87.4%); “have role models and models of educational success in their immediate environment of family and friends” (79.1%); go to a public center (55%), and go to a subsidized or private center (38.6%). On this last point, there is a notable difference between the responses of the Community of Madrid (where the percentage reaches 44.9%) and Catalonia (42.3%), on the one hand, and those of Galicia (28.6% ) and the Balearic Islands (29.8%), on the other.
What's wrong with the school?
For almost half of Spaniards (48.7%), the most important function that the school fulfills is “transmitting knowledge”, far removed from the next function (18.3%), which is “preparing to exercise responsible citizenship and criticism”. 56.2% of the population believes that the school does not respond to the needs of society. And of that group, 54.2% believe that it fails because of “not adequately training social skills, such as communication, collaborative work, empathy, leadership, the ability to innovate, entrepreneurship…”.
Zubillaga observes some contradictions in the responses of those interviewed. As in the fact that, of a list of 12 elements to improve within the educational system, the most highlighted is “reducing the levels of school failure and early educational abandonment” (57.7% choose it), and the least is “reduce grade repetition” (13.5%). “It is very clear proof of the lack of knowledge that exists between two phenomena that are closely related. “That's what I mean when I say that we have not known how to pedagogy our work.”
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