Spanish children leave school earlier, are much worse at reading, are more likely to be unemployed and spend more time out of work or doing nothing than young people in other countries, according to a new OECD global education study that uses data collected in 2012.
Spanish teachers are better paid and work fewer hours than their global counterparts.
Almost half of Spain’s adult population (45% of 25-64 year-olds) left school at the age of 16, almost double the OECD and EU averages, although that figure has fallen from a total of 67% in the year 2000.
This is almost double the average OECD rate of 24% and far from counries such as the US and Sweden, where just 11% and 12% of children, respectively, leave education at 16.
In its longer version of the OECD data, Spain’s Ministry of Education admits that: “In Spain, few individuals, even those with a tertiary education, reach the highest performance levels” compared to young people in other countries.
Spanish university graduates and advanced professional trainees are at the bottom of the OECD rankings for reading proficiency, alongside the Italians, scoring only half marks compared to the OECD average and a third of the score of leading countries such as Japan, Finland and the Netherlands.
Spain’s Ministry of Education admits in its report that: “Spain’s case is notorious for its bad results [in reading proficiency]. Whilst [the country] does not get the lowest percentage in either of the models, its relative position is very bad in both cases”.
Higher level reading proficiency correlates strongly (83%) with the chances of having a job, both in Spain and other OECD countries.
Spain’s youth unemployment rate is currently the highest in the world, at 53.8%.
Along with the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Ireland and the Slovak Republic, young Spaniards without a tertiary level of education are 15 percentage points more likely to be unemployed than their university-educated counterparts, but Spain’s extremely high level of youth unemployment means that even those Spaniards with a degree find it more difficult than their European counterparts to find a job.
As Spain continues to struggle with economic recovery after the 2008 financial crisis, the new report highlights other aspects of the relationship between education and employment where Spain is failing.
The number of Spanish students completing a professional vocation programme before they reach the age of 18 is “significantly smaller”, at 9%, than other European countries such as France (30%), Germany (55%) or Italy (32%).
The proportion of young Spaniards (15-29 year olds) who were neither studying nor in employment was “far more” than the OECD average, and the report notes that “more than half” of those young people would like to work more.
“This can be explained by the high incidence of young people moving from one short-term, temporary contract to another, frequently interspersed with periods of unemployment”, says the report.
Far fewer young Spaniards (5%) work and study at the same time compared to the OECD average of 14% or leading country Australia where 24% of youngsters manage to do both.
Whilst Spanish pupils receive about 100 hours more teaching time than other children (880 hours vs. 782 hours), Spanish teachers spend some 200 hours a year less time on non-classroom activities such as lesson preparation than their OECD counterparts (1,425 hours vs. 1,645 hours.
And whereas in other countries teachers salaries are generally lower than comparably educated workers in other professions, in Spain teachers’ wages are 20-30% higher than other graduate professions.
Approximately 70% of 6-16 year olds in Spain were enrolled in state schools, rising to 79% for 16-18 year olds.
Spain spent “5.5% of its GDP on educational institutions”, compared to an OECD average of 6.1%, although global expenditure per student was similar to the OECD average, at $9,500 per child per year, and slightly higher for Spanish children in state education.