The president of the Generalitat convenes a summit with parliamentary groups following the PISA fiasco, which left Catalonia without comparable data. The goal: to agree on measures and a path to invest 6% of GDP in education.
The Palau de la Generalitat hosted a meeting on Friday between president Salvador Illa and representatives of parliamentary groups to try to unblock an educational pact in Catalonia. The meeting comes after the PISA report left the region without representative results, as elespanol.com has learned.
The gathering, which Vox did not attend, served to confirm a shared diagnosis: there is a problem in the education system that cannot be ignored. This is summarised by a source present at the meeting, who describes the atmosphere as "quite civilised" and "very work-oriented".
Illa opened the session by expressing his intention to limit the future agreement to "five or six measures at most" to make it operational. Afterwards, each group spoke without a second round of replies, which avoided cross accusations.
"There were no accusations because there was no second round of intervention"
The Minister of Education, Esther Niubó, closed the meeting with practical matters. She confirmed that there is a draft calendar pending finalisation and announced two new working spaces.
The first will bring together the president of the Consell d'Educació de Catalunya, Joan Manuel del Pozo, with representatives of the groups to continue the deliberation process. The CEC expects to finish the debate by April.
The second space will focus on the "path" to reach 6% of GDP dedicated to Education, one of the sector's historical demands.
The summit comes after the school year began with a teachers' strike on September 8, the first school day in Catalonia. Unions are already preparing a new calendar of mobilisations due to the lack of progress.
The trigger for the crisis was the PISA report, which left Spain with its worst historical results and Catalonia without the possibility of comparing itself with other regions. Of the 2,545 selected students, 591 were excluded from the test, a 23.2%, which invalidated the sample.
The tests were conducted between March 31 and May 16, 2025. The first warning came on April 9, when there were still centres to be examined. The National Institute for Educational Evaluation warned that Catalonia was recording more exclusions than other regions and reminded centres that only those who truly could not take the evaluation should be exempt.
The Catalan body received up to seven technical reports before the evaluation period ended, but there is no record of measures being taken to correct the excess. Illa acknowledged before the Parlament that "there was room to strengthen supervision", to warn centres again and to control exclusions.
The result was a sample unable to represent the entire population of 15-year-old students in Catalonia. The OECD did not include Catalonia's results in its international reports, and the Spanish report warns that they also do not allow comparisons with other territories or previous editions.
Political pressure focused on Niubó. Illa came to her defence in the Parlament with a blunt message: "She has my confidence". PP, Junts, and Vox have demanded her resignation; Junts is also calling for an investigation commission.
For the residents of Catalonia, the educational pact directly affects the quality of teaching and the resources of the centres. Friday's meeting is a first step, but the calendar remains open and union mobilisations could continue if there are no concrete advances.
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