Catalonia’s education system is struggling, with recent data showing stagnant academic results and falling graduation rates. The latest Anuario de la Educación en Cataluña from Fundación equitat.org identifies deepening social inequality as the basic barrier to progress. Education budgets have grown, but the number of students with special needs has surged faster than available resources, leaving many schools struggling to cope.
The report highlights a sharp drop in the share of students graduating from compulsory secondary education (ESO), from 93% to 87% over five years. The decline also appears in regional diagnostic tests and international assessments, including PISA, PIRLS and TIMSS, where Catalonia continues to underperform. PISA measures the competencies of 15-year-old students, not ESO completion. A comparison discussed by Via Empresa shows Catalonia moving from above the average of comparable EU regions in all three basic domains in 2015 to below it in 2022. The academic achievement gap between students from vulnerable backgrounds and those from more affluent families now spans three years, a measure of the scale of the challenge.
Results also vary across education stages. Via Empresa reports that higher-education attainment in Catalonia stands at 56.50%, above the EU’s 45% target for 2030. Yet the share of higher-education students in engineering, architecture and science fell from 34% in 2002 to 25% in 2020, compared with an EU average of 35%. Stronger post-secondary attainment so coexists with weaker school-age assessment results and a shrinking share of students in these fields.
Persistent child poverty is one of the most pressing issues identified. One in three students in Catalonia currently requires additional educational support for socioeconomic reasons, while 40% of pupils attend segregated schools. The Generalitat has raised education spending by 33% since the 2019-20 academic year, reaching €7.9 billion last year. Over the same period, but, the number of students with special needs soared by 130%. The mismatch has left many schools without enough staff or resources to meet the growing complexity of their student populations.
Education investment remains well below the 6% of GDP target set by Catalan law: spending stands at 3.8% when universities are included and 3.2% without them. Welcome classrooms for newly arrived foreign students have not expanded fast enough to meet demand. Class sizes have grown from 26 to 28 students over seven years, even as the number of classrooms doubled. In secondary education, there is now one social educator for every 888 vulnerable students. Only half of eligible students in post-compulsory secondary education receive scholarships.
Fundación equitat.org has proposed 17 measures to address these challenges, most focused on directing more resources to schools with the highest levels of complexity. The proposals include doubling the number of additional teachers in those schools and providing administrative support. The foundation also calls for stronger oversight and a shift from the current linear funding model to one that allocates resources information from each school’s needs. It proposes a four-year pilot program in two cities, requiring the hiring of 2,175 new teachers at a cost of €115 million.
Other recommendations would expand financial support for vulnerable students to cover educational staff and extracurricular activities, at estimated costs of €75 million and €70 million, respectively. The report also calls for extending support programs such as PMOE-PROA+ and adding 8,000 vocational training places. Further measures focus on inclusive education: assigning two social educators and two social integrators to each high-complexity school, then expanding the SIEI plus service for students with disabilities from 126 to 740 schools at a cost of €111 million.
The findings come as education and social policy face greater scrutiny across Spain. Debate over resources and educational outcomes extends beyond Catalonia, where other regions report similar challenges. Recent national coverage, for example, has examined how major events and crises, including the Ecuador-Germany World Cup match and the Venezuela earthquakes, have shifted public attention and government priorities, as seen in recent media reports on shifting national focus. The wider debate reflects the difficulty of balancing immediate social needs with long-term investment in education.
Catalonia’s education system serves over 1.5 million students in public and semi-private schools. Regional law sets a minimum level of education investment, but actual spending has consistently fallen short. That gap between policy and practice has fueled debate among educators and policymakers, with families also weighing in. As more students require additional support, pressure on the system is expected to intensify without large reforms and targeted funding. The Anuario de la Educación en Cataluña warns that academic outcomes are unlikely to improve unless the underlying causes of inequality are addressed.
