Spain has a giant missing middle of young people without an education that would allow them to compete in the job market, according to the latest annual report on education from the OECD.
Ironically, while students spend more hours in school than average and the country also boasts slightly higher than average levels of university graduates, it has among the highest rates of young people who barely complete the required secondary education.
According to Education at a Glance, the OECD’s annual macro report on education, 27% of the Spanish population 25-34 years old—32% of boys and 21% of girls—have not completed either the baccalaureate or basic post-secondary professional formation. This means 1.4 million young people in Spain have no professional qualification at all, and among these are many who do not even complete compulsory secondary education, known as ESO. Additionally, 17% are ninis, meaning they are neither working nor studying, a rate that is worse only in Italy.
These students may become disillusioned with education early.
The OECD found that Spanish students, who have high rates of preschool enrollment, are ahead of the curve in the first years of primary school with high scores on standardized tests, but educational results start to drop after age 10. Again ironically, Spanish schools have about 7% more teaching hours in primary and 20% more in secondary school than the OECD average.
At age 16, a large section of the middle drops out. Fifty percent of young people go on to university or high-level professional formation, just above the 47% OECD average.
But, in return, there are fewer with a mid-level post-secondary education—23% registered for these types of courses compared to the OECD average of 39%.
Within the country, the education system is often considered too old-fashioned and undynamic, focused on making students memorize content to pass tests with little mercy for students who struggle. At the same time, the central government, whether progressive or conservative, is very interventionist and polemic about education. In its almost fifty years of democracy, the country has had as many major education reform laws as it has had governments. The last one went through in 2020 with the progressive, socialist-led government claiming to implement a new paradigm in the name of equality. But critics, including educators, warn that it has only served to dumb down obligatory education without providing any additional benefits to students.
As in many other countries with long years of obligatory education, experts in Spain propose a much more dramatic shift away from 10-12 years of spending six hours a day at a desk toward options that also allow students to gain more hands-on know-how and work experience at younger ages.
