A major error in Catalonia's PISA 2025 sampling has sparked political tension. The region loses its ability to compare student performance. Unanswered questions now challenge the credibility of the Catalan government.
A critical error in the sampling process for the 2025 PISA tests in Catalonia has triggered a wave of political and institutional fallout, leaving the region unable to benchmark its educational outcomes against other territories. The issue, which surfaced after the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OCDE) flagged an unusually high student exemption rate, has put the Catalan government's management under intense scrutiny and raised doubts about its transparency and effectiveness.
Esther Niubó, Catalonia's Education Minister, faced tough questioning from parliamentary groups after her explanations failed to clarify how the sampling error went undetected for months. The problem became public only after four months of silence, fueling frustration even among the government's own coalition partners, ERC and Comuns. Although a special parliamentary session requested by Junts per Catalunya was ultimately dropped, President Salvador Illa is expected to address the issue after the summer recess.
The core of the controversy lies in the fact that 23.2% of students who should have participated in the PISA tests were declared exempt, far exceeding the 5% threshold set by the OCDE. This anomaly, which affected 51 randomly selected schools between March and May 2025, was not caught by any of the internal verification processes. The OCDE notified the Catalan authorities in March, prompting an internal investigation that remains open. Niubó has argued that discussing details could compromise the integrity of the inquiry, but opposition parties accuse the department of lacking urgency and clarity.
Despite not having identified the root cause, the Education Department has already introduced new measures, including clearer protocols for each evaluation process, centralized validation circuits for student exemptions, and the creation of a new Commission for Coordination of Tests and Evaluation Studies. This commission, launched only recently, overlaps with the Agency for Evaluation and Foresight, which began operating in July 2025 after years of inactivity. The agency was intended to streamline educational assessments but distanced itself from the current scandal, highlighting ongoing organizational turbulence within the department.
The timing and handling of the public announcement have also come under fire. The government was aware of the issue since March but chose not to disclose it until the end of the academic year, a period already marked by labor disputes and strikes in the education sector. Niubó, who was on medical leave for two months due to cancer, did not specify who made the decision to delay the announcement. While the Education Department claims it acted responsibly by investigating before going public, opposition parties see this as a deliberate attempt to avoid accountability. Niubó maintains that the facts were shared before the September release of the PISA data, and only recently did the OCDE clarify the full impact on Catalonia's ability to compare results with previous years.
Questions remain about who was responsible for key decisions during Niubó's absence. Her deputy, Teresa Sambola, led the department, while institutional representation fell to Presidency Minister Albert Dalmau. The opposition has pressed for details on when President Illa was informed, but no clear answers have been provided. The lack of transparency has only deepened the sense of crisis surrounding the incident.
This episode comes at a time when Spain's education system is under increased scrutiny, with regional disparities and governance challenges frequently making headlines. For context, issues of administrative opacity and delayed communication have also surfaced in other sectors, as seen when debate over the 'ley de nietos' exposed gaps in legal clarity and government response. The PISA sampling error in Catalonia now stands as a stark reminder of the importance of robust oversight and transparent crisis management in public administration.
According to the OCDE, the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) tests are a key international benchmark for evaluating educational systems. Spain has participated since the program's inception, with results often influencing policy debates and resource allocation. Catalonia's inability to provide comparable data for 2025 not only undermines its own educational planning but also complicates national and international assessments. The incident has reignited calls for stronger institutional checks and clearer lines of responsibility within regional governments, especially in areas as sensitive as education.
