Madrid, May 16 (EFE).- Spanish children in 4th grade have worsened their reading comprehension by seven points since 2016, a drop similar to that registered by the OECD and the European Union that breaks with the upward trend of recent years and behind which is the closure of schools due to the pandemic.
This is reflected in the progress of the International Progress in Reading Comprehension Study (PIRLS), the first major international evaluation after covid-19, which measures the reading comprehension of students in their fourth year of compulsory schooling (4th year). of Primary in the Spanish case).
In the analysis of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Performance, released today Tuesday and repeated every five years, 57 OECD and EU countries have participated, with a sample of 140,000 students, 120,000 of them from the Union and more than 10,000 from Spain.
PIRLS defines reading comprehension as “the ability to understand and use written language forms required by society and/or valued by the individual. Readers are able to construct meaning from a variety of texts. They read to learn, to participate in communities of readers at school and in everyday life, and for personal enjoyment.
The global averages of the participating countries are expressed on a continuous scale with a central reference point of 500 points. In the case of Spain, the average score, 521, is “significantly below” the OECD-28 average (533) and the EU average (528), says PIRLS.
At the top are Ireland, with 577 points, followed by Northern Ireland (566), England (558), Croatia (557), Lithuania (552), Finland and Poland, both with 559 points, and the USA (548). .
At the bottom are Belgium, Turkey, Israel, Cyprus, France and Malta, between 494 and 515, along with Slovenia and Portugal, both with 520 points, Spain and New Zealand, with 521, and Germany (524).
Very few Spanish children at the advanced level
The percentage of Spanish students at the advanced level (6%) is well below the OECD (11%) and the EU (8%), and, what is most striking, very far from that of countries whose estimated average score It is similar to that of Spain: New Zealand (11%) and Germany (8%).
If we look at the percentage of students at the very low level, it can be seen that Spain’s (5%) is slightly lower than that of the OECD (6%), and is much more favorable than countries with a similar average score : New Zealand (10%) and Germany (6%).
Results by comprehension process
Regarding the acquisition and use of information by students, Spain obtains an average performance of 522 points, below the OECD (532) and the EU (527), while in the so-called purpose of literary experience, Spain (520) is again below the OECD (535) and the Union 530.
In addition, the Spanish average score for the process of obtaining information and making direct inferences is 522 points, compared to 532 for the OECD and 529 for the EU.
In the content integration and evaluation process, the Spanish average is 520 points, once again below the OECD (534) and the EU (528).
What has happened these years?
In the case of Spain, it can be seen that between 2016 and 2021 the rise between 2011 and 2016 is reversed, and also with a significant decrease: from 528 points to 521.
But the decrease is not exclusive to our country, since between 2016 and 2021 the OECD average breaks with the upward trend that it had been registering uninterruptedly since 2006, and suffers a decrease of the same order of magnitude as Spain, going from 541 to 533 points.
The pandemic, behind the results?
The three countries that have a significant increase in their estimated average score are Malta (63), Norway (22) and Ireland (11). Malta’s increase is very striking, but it came from a very low performance in 2016 (452 points).
At the other extreme, there are three countries that suffer a decline of 20 points or more: Israel (20), Slovenia (23) and Latvia (30). Spain is among those that have suffered the least drop in their score (7) above Germany (13) or Finland (17).
This evidence points to a global drop in reading comprehension, which “could be a consequence of the impact of the pandemic”, but “more in-depth analyzes are necessary to corroborate this hypothesis”.
The study does observe a correlation between the time in which the centers have been closed due to the pandemic and the drop in performance, with a decrease of 0.11 points per school day of closure.
In Spain, of the almost 7 points that overall performance falls, almost 5 points would thus be explained by the closure of schools for 45 school days -we were among those that closed the fewest days-.
Performance is partly conditioned by the social, economic and cultural context of the students: the higher the level, the better the scores, however in Spain this difference is one of the least important in the study (62 points), below Finland (67). or France (80).
Among the countries with the most inequalities are Turkey (117 points) and Bulgaria (122).
Likewise, the difference in performance between girls and boys is much lower in Spain (girls obtain an average of 2 points more than boys), than in the EU (11 points more in the score of female students.
Spanish teachers are the most satisfied in the OECD and the EU, according to a study
81% of Spanish teachers state that they are very satisfied with their profession, the highest percentage in OECD and EU countries, according to the progress of the International Progress in Reading Comprehension Study (PIRLS), released Today, Tuesday.
It is the first major international assessment after Covid-19, which basically measures the reading comprehension of students in their fourth year of compulsory schooling (4th grade in the Spanish case) in 57 countries of the European Union and the OECD.
In the section on the satisfaction of teachers with their daily work, only 18% of Spanish teachers indicate that they are “somewhat satisfied” and 1% “not very satisfied”.
On average for the OECD, 51% of these professionals say they are very satisfied, 40% somewhat satisfied and 9% not very satisfied. In the EU, these percentages are respectively 50%, 40% and 10%.
Thus, eight out of 10 teachers in Spain feel very satisfied with their profession, being the country with the highest percentage among the countries and regions selected in the study.
In addition, Spanish teachers consider “generally that the discipline does not pose almost any problem”.
On the other hand, Spain is among the countries with the highest percentage of primary school students with a high sense of belonging to their school (73%), according to the advance results of PIRLS 2021, prepared every five years by the International Association for the Educational Performance Assessment (IEA).