Plan to detect learning problems: only one in five schools has signed up

BarcelonaLast March, the Minister of Education, Esther Niubó, announced in Parliament that this school year Learning disability screening tests would be conducted on all students in grades 1 and 3 of primary schoolIt was later explained that these tests would not be mandatory, but rather They would be made available to schools – public and private – on their own initiative, on a voluntary basis.They wanted to implement these measures to assess their students' progress and take appropriate action. Finally, this Sunday, the Department of Education announced in a press release that 450 schools have enrolled in the Learning Prevention and Promotion Program (APPA), the name given to this screening plan. These 450 schools represent only 20% of the primary schools in the system. In other words, only one in five schools has registered for APPA. As the Department of Education explains, in January, students in the first and third grades of primary school will be tested in these 450 schools to detect and identify "children's educational needs in relation to communication and reading skills." The teachers of each class will be responsible for administering these tests and will also be responsible for entering the data into a departmental application.

The tests to detect learning difficulties will be administered both on paper and orally, and will take place in the first and third grades of primary school because, according to the Ministry of Education, these are the "key" years for acquiring language, reading, and writing skills.

Analysis to create an action plan

After administering the tests, each school must analyze the results with the support of the EAP (Psychopedagogical Advisory and Guidance Team), the Educational Resource Center for Students with Hearing Impairments and Students with Severe Language Disorders (CREDA), and the ELIC (Language, Interculturality, and Cohesive Education Advisory Teams). Other inclusive education professionals, such as inclusion support teachers, will also participate in the analysis of student results. Once this comprehensive overview of the results is complete, the school must design an action plan based on the students' level and the identified challenges. According to the Catalan Ministry of Education, this plan must include "universal and additional measures to tailor the educational response to the identified needs." In this regard, the program will also offer training opportunities for teachers and examples of how to implement the measures and actions in the classroom to address the learning difficulties identified among the school's students. Regarding the 80% of schools that have not enrolled in the program, the Department of Education reminds them that they will also have access to the guidelines, tools, and materials of the APPA program. It should be recalled that at the beginning of the school year, Minister Niubó explained that in Catalan schools and institutes there were a third of the students who needed educational supportThe vast majority – according to data from last year – are due to socioeconomic vulnerability, but there are also more than 40,000 who need them due to learning disorders.