Introduction
In September 1996, the Ministry of Education and Culture proposed that a diagnosis be carried out through the National Institute for Quality and Evaluation (INCE), that would provide an adequate view of the situation of the Spanish school system at a crucial moment, when completion of the process to devolve educational management competencies to the Regional Governments is foreseen.
As this task was not included in the first Plan of Action by the Institute, designed to cover the period from 1994 to 1997, it was necessary to prepare an update for the plan in order to add the necessary tasks. After detailed studies, the Management of the INCE proceeded to prepare an update document to present to the Board of Governors of the Institute. Considering the scarcity of time and available resources, it did not seem possible to carry out a diagnosis of all the levels, modes and aspects of the system; it was rather more necessary to select the level that could provide the best overview of its global needs. The decision was thus taken to concentrate the diagnosis the final stage of obligatory education, as this is understood as the phase when most consideration of the results obtained must be made. On the other hand, the INCE had recently assessed the stage immediately before that, for the period that, in international terminology, covers primary education. To continue with the effort, the diagnosis of obligatory secondary education could well provide the Spaniards a more or less sufficient outline of the present day reality of their non-university educational system.
The aim of the project presented to the Board of Governors, in addition to including the widest possible approach to the academic system, was to avoid a judgement of it solely in terms of the results obtained by students in the fundamental subjects studied. As this is an important aspect for reflection, it seemed, however, that the diagnosis could and should be enrichened by other overall perspectives, in such aspects as analysis of the present syllabus and teaching methods, school management, the teaching tasks and school-society relations.
The diagnosis project conceived in this light was submitted for consideration by the Board of Governors in October. As the main objective was to evaluate the situation of the school system, especially in the Regions where management was to be devolved in 1998, this time the criteria was adopted, that was undoubtably exceptional at its very conception by the INCE, to allow the remaining Regional Governments full freedom (that is to say, those which already had full competencies in educational matters) to participate in the diagnosis or not, according to the real availabilities and indeed scarce time available. The Board of Governors approved the diagnosis project and mainly expressed its desire for all the Regions to take part in it but, due to its optional nature, it could not avoid the Council of Education and Science of the Regional Government of Andalusia declining to participate, claiming - as set forth in the relevant Minutes - that the evaluation process then under way in the Region made it unfeasible to participate simultaneously in a similar project of such a great scope.
The diagnosis then proceeded. To prepare and implement it, five Specialised Committees were set up, one for each one of the aspects to be assessed, specifically:
- Committee I: on the academic performance of students aged 14 and 16
- Committee II: on teaching plans and methods and learning in obligatory secondary education
- Committee III: on school functioning
- Committee IV: on the teaching role
- Committee V: on school and society
Each Committee was established with participation by nine specialists, some appointed at the instance of the Regional Governments with fully devolved competencies, and others proposed by the Ministry of Education and Culture and the INCE, which appointed, among others, the Chairman. Andalusia also appointed an observer on each of the Committees.
Due to scarce time and resources, and to allow the scientific autonomy they were granted, the Committees had to carry out the initial effort at planning, concentrating their activities on the aspects that could provide the most significant data. They all had to set a limit to their field of action. Thus, Committee I decided to administer Spanish Language and Mathematics tests nationwide (except in Andalusia), on one hand, and Nature Sciences and Geography and History only to students in the 10 Regions then included in was then called the "Ministry of Education and Culture Territory". Committee II, although its subject matter was more limited, also had to restrict its activities to a wide survey of the teaching staff, ignoring other sources of information and study, which would undoubtably have yielded results of considerable interest, but which it would have been difficult to process within the deadline set and available resources. Committee III chose three matters related to school functioning: management, participation and social aspects at schools. Committee IV was formed slightly late due to some technical problems and decided to concentrate on motivation and initial and ongoing training of the teaching staff. And Committee V, faced with the very wide ranging theme it had been commissioned, considered it fitting to deal specifically with the matter of relations between the family and school.
When the work had begun throughout the set of Committees, the Board of Governors of the Canary Institute of Educational Evaluation and Quality took the decision not to administer the evaluation instruments that were being prepared in the Canaries, except in the case of Committees IV and V. This decision prevents this Report from providing data on that Region, just as in the case of Andalusia. Thus, in strict terms, it also prevents general application of the results obtained from the diagnosis to the whole of the Spanish State. However, due to the considerable number of people - students, teachers, management, parents - who have participated in the diverse tests and surveys and the variety of the geographic samples, as well as the scientific rigor taken in preparation and administration of the analytical instruments, the diagnosis undoubtably provides sufficient analysis of the situation of the Spanish educational system in the aspects studied.
The following Report is just a summary of all the effort made at diagnosis, a summary that, logically, may do nothing further than show the substantial aspects, without providing a detailed analysis of the results nor, even less, considerations of a methodological nature. Persons who are interested in obtaining greater knowledge of these aspects would thus have to resort to each one of the Reports prepared by the respective Committees.
The main body of the report concentrates on summarising the results of each one of these surveys. However, it did seem appropriate to previously connect this further attempt at repeated self-evaluation that, especially in recent decades, have taken place in our country. The last chapter is an attempt at linking the set of contributions; and as it and in general the whole of the diagnosis is all made with the will to bring about qualitative improvements, we have included some conclusions and recommendations one may extract from the study.