Education: the difficult way out of confusion

BarcelonaThe fifteen-year period from 2010 to 2025 has been marked, in the field of education, by a worrying general disaffection towards schools and a loss of basic consensus, both on methods and the language of instruction (with Catalan under judicial and political pressure), as well as on governance models, curricula, the use of new technologies, and teacher training. However, progress has also been made, such as the reduction of school segregation since the 2028 agreement, which has meant that state-subsidized private schools now enroll three times as many immigrant students as a decade ago, and the steps forward in making childcare free. However, this fifteen-year period has been tinged with a chronic unease from which there is no end in sight. Alarm bells are ringing frequently, often from opposing viewpoints. The often commendable, albeit quiet, professional work continues in schools, but with an underlying murmur that, among teachers, dampens the enthusiasm of young newcomers and confirms the weariness of veterans. The figures for burnout These figures are worrying: according to 2021-22 data, eight out of ten teachers sought mental health support. The discontent was triggered by the 2010 budget cuts, a point from which the union movement gained significant prominence in amplifying the voice of teachers, historically more represented by professional associations and more focused on the discourse of pedagogical renewal, a discourse particularly strong in Catalonia. However, this movement has now also entered a period of crisis, with some voices calling for a return to a supposedly orderly past. In these fifteen years, the pandemic marked the second point of disconnection between teachers and the education department, as well as with families and society as a whole. The closure of schools resulted in uneven responses to support students and, overall, despite efforts, led to a decline in learning levels and created tensions between families and educational institutions.

Poor academic results in various standardized tests over the years (especially PISA, but not exclusively), with only slight improvements in recent years, have further soured the atmosphere, hindering dialogue and agreements for progress. There is more debate than solutions or agreements on which path to take.

What is happening is a disorderly mix of methodological and curricular approaches, pressure to improve working conditions and budget investment, the irruption of new technologies (we have gone from enthusiastically embracing them to banning mobile phones), the constant arrival of students from diverse backgrounds, the governance of centers (the attempt, in public schools, to move towards directions with greater decision-making capacity), the profound transformations in family habits, the demagogic fight against linguistic normalization, the differences between public and subsidized schools (among others, the sixth hour or the instability of public staff), the inequality in access to inclusive activities (incorporating more and more children with learning or behavioral difficulties into classrooms).

All of this has only served to turn primary schools and secondary schools into fertile ground for confusion, a disorientation that also partly affects the university field, with its own specificities, both in terms of work and methodology, as well as the coexistence between public and private institutions.

Between the extremes of nostalgia for an era supposedly dominated by a culture of hard work and the recognized authority of teachers, and the pressing need to catch up in the face of the recent explosion of artificial intelligence (AI) and an increasingly audiovisual and less reading-oriented culture, it is difficult to find the path to move towards the center of excellence (both from the perspective of teachers and students). And of course, in the field of education, changes, for better or for worse, are usually noticeable in the medium and long term. But the reality of the Catalan educational world, despite being marked by results below the OECD averages, is not immune to a global sense of uncertainty, with few certainties and much experimentation. Beyond magical solutions, the fight against educational pessimism is shaping up to be crucial for the coming years. The awareness of the need to address this is widely accepted.