PP spokesperson Lorena Roldán has demanded that Esther Niubó, the Generalitat's Education Minister, explain to the Parliament of Catalonia what she called a "serious failure" in the management of the 2025 PISA tests.

The error means Catalonia's results, due to be published in September, will not be comparable with earlier PISA editions or those of other autonomous communities. For families, teachers and schools, the results will therefore not provide a comparable measure of whether the educational performance of 15-year-olds in Catalonia has improved or worsened.

Roldán called for Niubó to account to the Catalan Chamber for the "serious failure" in the handling of the tests.

Exemption rate exceeded OECD threshold

The Generalitat's Department of Education said the problem arose from the application of criteria used to exempt pupils from sitting the assessment. PISA is the OECD's international assessment of 15-year-old students.

According to the Department's Director General for Curriculum and Professional Development, Sònia Fernández Cuenca, the exemption rate in Catalonia's 2025 sample reached 23.2%, above the OECD maximum of 5%.

  • The initial Catalan sample included 2,545 students.
  • A total of 591 pupils were exempted from taking the tests.
  • Only 1,909 students ultimately sat the assessment.

Fernández Cuenca said the sample was valid but not statistically representative of Catalonia's population of students born in 2009. Exemptions can apply for physical, cognitive, behavioural or emotional disabilities, or insufficient command of the test language, but each case must be assessed individually.

Investigation opened after March alert

The Generalitat received an alert about the error in March and announced it on Friday 24 July. The Department of Education has opened an investigation to establish what caused the problem.

Catalonia's results will still appear in Spain's September PISA report, with a technical warning. Readers seeking the international assessment framework can consult the OECD's PISA results publication.

Primary sources: esade.edu. Reported by Source Text Link, Diana Silva, elperiodico.com, elmundo.es, Yolanda Bernal, catalannews.com, Marta Sánchez Iranzo, oecd.org, William Chislett, diariosigloxxi.com, ddd.uab.cat, Europa Press Barcelona.