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Issue 78
25 APRIL 3-9 - 1 may Jan 2014
Boys failing in school Half of Murcia’s boys have repeated a grade by Keith Nicol IN WHAT amounts to highlighting even more cracks in the standard of education and teaching methods deployed throughout Spain new figures show that half all the boys of 15 years of age from the Balearic Islands, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura and Murcia studying their fourth year are behind because they have been repeated at least once during compulsory education. Overall, Spanish data showed a repeat rate 38.3% of all students of 15 years; with 43.1% of boys; and 33.2% of girls. The OECD, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, has again underlined the negative impact of repeaters on the results throughout Spain at the last International Student Assessment (PISA 2012), which accounted for 34% of the students who participated in the tests. They also highlighted the fact that of the Spaniards who have not repeated any course before reaching 15 years higher than the average of OECD and EU academic results, many others are often borderline, just achieving the minimum levels. Based on analysis of the OECD on Spain ‘Educational policy perspective’, repetition can contribute to early abandonment of education and training and is not effective in improving outcomes and can be expensive for the system. A spokesperson for the OECD said, “Repetition in Spain, represents almost 8% of total expenditure on primary and secondary education, one of the highest rates among OECD countries.” In the year 2011-2012, the Balearic’s showed repeat or failure rate among boys aged 15 of 49.2%. On the mainland, they
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Spanish data showed a repeat rate 38.3% of all students
are closely followed by Murcia where 49.6% of boys repeated, Extremadura (50.4%), Canarias (50.7) and Castilla-La Mancha (50.8%). By contrast, the rate of suitability of the boys was higher in the Basque Country (69.5%), Catalonia (67.5%), Navarra (64.2%) and Asturias (62.2%). Valencia is conspicuously
absent in taking part in the survey, although in Torrevieja, typical first year repeat rates for both sexes were estimated at about 30% with some schools repeating almost 60% of their students and having to set up an additional first year class to accommodate the repeating students.