Almost half of the secondary school teachers in the State believe that initial training is not adequate.

BarcelonaTeachers lack confidence in the training they have received. This is one of the main conclusions of the TALIS (Teaching and Learning International Survey) 2024 report, published by the OECD every five years and analyzing the state of education systems in more than 50 countries. According to this study, only 57% of secondary school teachers in Spain consider the initial training provided to future teachers—and, therefore, the training they themselves received—to be adequate. The international study admits that the proportion of Spanish teachers who hold this opinion "is well below" the OECD average (77%) and the European Union average (71%). The inevitable flip side of the percentage in Spain implies that almost half of secondary school teachers do not consider initial teacher training to be adequate.

In this regard, the TALIS report warns that in this area of analysis, "the differences between countries are substantial." Thus, while in countries such as Estonia, Portugal, Colombia, and Cyprus, more than 90% of secondary school teachers give a positive assessment of initial teacher training, and in 14 other countries the percentage is 80%, Spain is at the opposite end of the spectrum, with Norway and Japan. In all three, the proportion of teachers who hold this opinion is less than 60%. Only France is behind, which the report considers "an atypical case" because not even half of secondary school teachers give a positive assessment of initial teacher training.

The report highlights a problem that the educational community has long warned about: beyond the overall assessment, there are shortcomings in teacher training in the subject matter they teach. In fact, according to TALIS 2024, Spain is the only country where fewer than 70% of teachers believe this type of training is adequate, far below the OECD (85%) and EU (83%) averages.

Within the assessment of teacher training, the study also contains some data—albeit superficial—from the autonomous communities that requested a separate sample, including Catalonia. In this regard, Catalan secondary school teachers are the least satisfied with their training in the subject matter. Only 64% of Catalan secondary school teachers believe this training is adequate, the same proportion as in the Balearic Islands, but almost 10 points behind the Canary Islands (73%), which occupy the top position in this area of the communities analyzed (only Andalusia, the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Catalonia, and the Basque Country have requested it).

Teacher evaluation

The international study also focuses on the evaluation of teachers' work. In fact, the report directly points out that "data show that in Spain, direct evaluation by school management is clearly less frequent than in the OECD." While in most countries, almost 90% of teachers receive this monitoring, in Spain only 69% of secondary school teachers and 63% of primary school teachers receive it.

This less insistent evaluation is also reflected in the consequences that performing their work better or worse can have on a professional. Thus, at the national level, less than 1% of high school and school teachers say they receive financial rewards for receiving a positive evaluation of their work, or some sanction for a negative evaluation. In contrast, internationally, these proportions, although also low, rise to 3% in primary school and 12% in secondary school.

Catalan teachers, the most stressed

Among many other aspects, the OECD report also focuses on teachers' perceptions of their work. Thus, one of the variables analyzed is the stress teachers experience when preparing their classes. This is an area where Catalonia stands out: half (49%) of high school teachers and 39% of primary school teachers say they experience quite a bit or a lot of stress when preparing classes. These percentages are the highest among the autonomous communities analyzed and also exceed the EU average (33%) and the OECD average (35%).

Still regarding stress, the study also shows that 44% of Catalan secondary school teachers say they experience stress when teaching students with special needs. This percentage, again, is the highest among the autonomous communities for which data is available, and is higher than the Spanish average (40%), the OECD average (37%), and the EU average (39%).

On the other hand, Catalonia is also the region where the highest proportion of teachers (87% in secondary schools and 90% in primary schools) claim to have students with diverse educational needs. This percentage in Spain as a whole is 78% in secondary schools and 82% in primary schools, while in the OECD and EU as a whole it is 77%.