Overview
- The 2025 PISA sample in Catalonia excluded 591 of 2,545 selected students, a 23.2% rate that exceeds the OECD limit of 5% and makes Catalonia’s scores non‑comparable with other regions, countries or past editions.
- Technical warnings were raised during testing in April 2025 and the OECD issued a methodological alert in March 2026, but the case was made public in late July 2026 when the consellera Esther Niubó explained the problem in parliament.
- Niubó admitted the department lacked clear protocols to validate exemptions and advanced a working hypothesis that PISA coincided with Catalonia’s 4th ESO final exams, which may have led centres to apply broader exemption rules meant for those local tests.
- The Generalitat has opened diligencias informativas and created a Commission of Coordination of Tests and Evaluation Studies to investigate the causes, promise responsibility will be determined, and apply new controls for future evaluations.
- The political fallout is growing: President Salvador Illa has publicly defended Niubó, opposition parties demand resignations or accountability, and Catalonia will still appear in Spain’s national report in September but without international or inter‑regional comparability.