School directors across Catalonia have raised serious concerns about oversight of the recent PISA 2025 assessments. The proportion of exempted students in the region, it emerged, exceeded the maximum recommended by the OECD. The Associació de Directius de l’Educació Pública de Catalunya (Axia) has identified failures in supervision as the root cause. Its president, Jordi Satorra, said there was either no control or it was insufficient, prompting calls for an explanation of how such a impressive error could occur.
PISA, the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment, evaluates the skills of 15-year-old students, including reading and mathematics, as well as science. Its results are used to compare educational outcomes, so the student sample’s composition and the accuracy of assessment data matter when interpreting the findings. Speaking on 3Cat, Satorra said schools had followed the instructions provided and that established validation mechanisms should have ensured compliance with the required parameters. He questioned whether all 51 schools involved could have made the same mistake independently, suggesting the problem lay elsewhere in the process.
Satorra said responsibility for supervising the assessments had previously rested with the Consell Superior de l’Avaluació, recently replaced by the Agència de l’Avaluació. The transition between the two bodies took place between February and March 2025, coinciding with preparations for the PISA tests, and may have left a gap in oversight.
Salvador Illa, president of the Generalitat, has refrained from assigning blame in response to the controversy. Speaking from Vietnam, he said the focus should not be on finding a scapegoat. Instead, Illa stressed the need to clarify what happened and prevent similar incidents in the future. He also expressed full support for Esther Niubó, the regional minister for Education and Vocational Training, who is scheduled to address the issue in the Catalan Parliament’s Education Committee.
School leaders have also asked not to be held solely responsible for the error, calling for a thorough review of the entire process. The incident has drawn attention to the difficulty of maintaining data integrity during periods of administrative change. Axia said the overlap between the dissolution of the Consell Superior de l’Avaluació and the establishment of the Agència de l’Avaluació may have contributed to the breakdown in controls.
Educational oversight and data reliability have raised concerns in Spain before. Disruptions to Catalonia’s public services have made headlines, including a major cable theft that halted the entire R3 Rodalies rail line, affecting thousands of commuters and prompting questions about infrastructure security. More details are available in this report on regional rail disruptions.
The Catalan controversy has renewed debate about oversight mechanisms and the risks of institutional transitions. The Generalitat has called for calm and a focus on solutions. Regional authorities and school leaders are expected to discuss the issue further in the coming weeks as they seek to restore confidence in the system.
