Spain's People’s Party wants to tighten the rules on grade progression at the compulsory secondary education . In its election manifesto it calls for pupils to progress to the next year only if they have passed their subjects. Those who are struggling should receive compulsory support before grade repetition becomes necessary.
The party presented its programme on 10 November. On 29 November, both chambers of Spain’s parliament will be elected; the election campaign began on 13 November. The education proposals are election promises and are not yet rules in force.
The programme text leaves open how the provision would be designed in detail. In particular, it does not specify any exceptions for individual subjects that have not been passed, nor does it explain in detail how compulsory support would be organised. It is not possible to determine with certainty from this whether, or how often, pupils would actually have to repeat a year if the proposal were implemented.
Under the current rules for compulsory secondary education, the teaching team decides collectively whether pupils progress. Among other things, pupils move up if they have failed no more than two subjects. The team may also recommend progression when more subjects have been failed if it considers the prospects for successful further study to be favourable. Repeating a year is considered an exception and is only considered once ordinary support measures have been exhausted.
By international comparison, Spain has a high proportion of young people who have already repeated a year. In the PISA survey In 2022, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 22 per cent of the pupils surveyed in Spain said they had repeated a year at least once since starting primary school. The average across member countries was nine per cent. The figures refer to the 15-year-olds tested at the time, not to the repetition rate in any one school year.
The organisation notes that grade repetition tends to be less common in high-performing education systems. Its country comparison also shows that socially disadvantaged young people in many education systems were more likely to have repeated a year than their socially advantaged peers. However, these observations alone do not show what consequences the People’s Party’s proposal would have in Spain.
Editor: Phillipe Schmidt-Araguin (Article created with AI assistance).