Catalonia’s Education Department has annulled its PISA test results after a sampling error excluded too many students. The incident led to disciplinary proceedings and the dismissal of a top official. The OECD will not recognize the region’s results.
The Catalan government has declared the region’s latest PISA test results invalid after a critical sampling error excluded nearly a quarter of eligible students—far above the 5% threshold set by the OECD. This misstep, which surfaced just weeks before the official publication of results, has forced the Department of Education to open disciplinary cases and remove its secretary general, exposing deep flaws in the region’s educational oversight.
According to the Department, the error originated internally: warnings from the Instituto Nacional de Evaluación Educativa (INEE), part of Spain’s Ministry of Education, were repeatedly ignored. The INEE flagged the irregularities up to seven times before the exams, but the alerts never reached school administrators, leaving no opportunity to correct the sample. The Department later admitted that the information sent to school directors about exclusion rates was also inaccurate.
Three disciplinary proceedings are now underway. One targets the former head of the Council for Educational Evaluation for negligence, while two others involve civil servants accused of failing to fulfill their duties. None of the three remain in their previous roles. The most senior casualty is Teresa Sambola, the former secretary general, who was dismissed—though the government claims her removal was to strengthen management, not directly due to the PISA incident. Marta Clari, previously a senior manager at Barcelona City Hall, has been appointed as her replacement, with the government emphasizing the need for stronger internal controls.
The scale of the exclusion—591 out of roughly 2,500 students—means Catalonia’s PISA results cannot be compared to previous years or to other regions. The OECD has already stated it will not validate the data, although the results will still be included in Spain’s national report. It remains unclear whether Catalonia’s flawed sample will affect the national average.
This is not the first time PISA testing has caused turmoil in Catalonia. In 2022, poor results led to the dismissal of the president of the Council for Educational Evaluation and the dismantling of the body itself. The current crisis has reignited debate over the region’s ability to manage large-scale educational assessments. The Department has not explained why such a significant error occurred this year, especially given Catalonia’s long experience with international tests like TIMSS and PIRLS, and its routine handling of diagnostic exams.
Transparency remains a concern. The Department waited five months before publicly acknowledging the error, doing so only after schools had closed for summer. Officials have promised to release all documentation once the disciplinary cases conclude. The government’s spokesperson has assured that detailed information will be provided, but many questions about the chain of communication and responsibility remain unanswered.
This episode follows a pattern of administrative upheaval in Catalonia’s education sector. As reported in recent coverage of the leadership shakeup, the region has faced repeated scrutiny over its handling of standardized assessments, raising broader questions about governance and accountability in the education system.
PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) is a triennial international survey coordinated by the OECD to evaluate education systems worldwide by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students. Regions like Catalonia can pay for expanded samples to obtain detailed, comparable data. The exclusion of too many students undermines the statistical validity of the results, making it impossible to draw reliable conclusions about educational performance. The incident highlights the importance of strict adherence to international protocols in educational evaluation and the potential consequences when these standards are not met.
