In the educational conversation, I am increasingly reluctant to lean towards simple solutions to problems that are always complex and require a considered and multi-causal analysis.
Grade repetition is one of those complex problems. Or better, one of those debatable decisions in the face of a very great difficulty: the deficiencies that students carry throughout a course, especially in Secondary Education, and the proposal of actions to address them.
The most recent data from the Ministry, corresponding to the last academic year, indicate that only one in every hundred students between the ages of 3 and 11 repeats, while it shoots up in Secondary Education to almost 7%, above the European average. Recent research linked to OECD reports and Spanish studies based on PISA 2022, as well as subsequent analyzes of educational equity, review the dubious effectiveness of school repetition: there is no proven causality in terms of sustained academic improvements due to repetition.
If we give it a twist, the problem is twisted considerably: passing the entire course to all students, without further ado, does not solve the equation either. Automatic promotion hides deficits that worsen in higher stages. Solving it is not easy. Countries that apply almost universal promotion, such as Finland, do so accompanied by intensive reinforcements, individualized support and early detection systems.
In Spain, although the decentralization of education and the importance of context invite us not to offer definitive conclusions, we continue to be bogged down in convoluted pedagogical debates that divert us from the essential issue: the transcendental value of supporting students who have deficiencies, whether they pass or not, with, for example, personalized tutoring, with positive results in motivation and performance in other places such as Canada or the Netherlands.
With or without repetition, the most vulnerable students reach the fourth year of ESO with options to graduate, but with deficiencies in key learning for adult life. Learning that in theory is reflected for the entire national territory in the so-called exit profile: what everyone has to know at the end of the stage. It is not chosen, however, to reinforce from the base with work in small groups (without separating) or support with two teachers at a time in the classroom, in addition to offering training to teachers so that they know how to design real and effective support plans, as is already done in the Nordic countries of Europe.
In practice, equity policies and what happens in the classrooms have not gone hand in hand. Actions such as PROA+ (a public program that provides educational reinforcement and support to selected centers with vulnerable students), despite the investment they entail, have not yet translated into the improvement in performance that could be expected. This is indicated by the results of the diagnostic tests that are carried out every year in all centers, in addition to the sample data from the three-year PISA evaluation.
PROA+ represents an attempt by Spain to align itself with international models of educational reinforcement. However, its uneven implementation and lack of continuity mean that it has not yet achieved the desired effect in many places. For example, it is interesting that in specific cases foreign students are also being oriented to improve their command of Spanish as a vehicular language, as is done in Andalusia. It would be appropriate for regions like the Canary Islands, with a high rate of migrant students, to explore this avenue of reinforcement: many of the students who are repeating there right now are .
We cannot doubt that our educational system today is more powerful and balanced than that of a few decades ago. That more students have the possibility of achieving success in higher education is a sign of indisputable educational quality. However, the fact that teaching teams are increasingly faced with academically very heterogeneous classrooms reveals other emergencies that must be addressed.
It is time to talk, therefore, about those students who reach the end of ESO with a multitude of pending subjects. What is it about him? Does it make sense to make the same types of recovery plans that we did in the past? It is also time to stop fighting and recognize that the so-called personalized support involves truly individualized attention, in a longitudinal support system that allows us to measure over time the level of performance of students who pass the course and who the following year are the same or even worse, with the impact that this has on their frustration.
but the value that is given to learning every time the student feels that he or she passes the course or passes as a result of having had the reinforcement he or she deserves is also worth taking into account. Staying one more year in the same course aggravates inequality, and the figures are there to corroborate it, but going without intensive support leads to the same failure.
Reducing the stigma caused by repeating a grade is the task of an educational system focused on social issues, and progress in reducing the repetition rate contributes to this. However, our students and their families are valuable enough that the lack of skills and the risks represented by a misunderstood diversity are hidden from them, with a teaching staff that sometimes cannot cope because each student needs more time.
Ultimately, however, precarious attention turns automatic promotion into a mechanical routine in which each student lacks the detailed study that their personal, family or cognitive situation deserves, regardless of whether or not they have a psycho-pedagogical report.
Minimizing these damages with structural changes requires more investment in the most vulnerable contexts. If we cannot solve the structural breakdown caused by the high concentration of poverty in certain population centers, we can rethink the school maps according to the educational areas that require extra injection of support. Students run a greater risk there, not only of repeating, but of falling behind in what they need to learn. And that is what, when we talk about educational collateral damage, we should care about.
