President Salvador Illa will appear before the Parlament de Catalunya, Catalonia's legislature, on Wednesday 23 September to explain the errors that excluded Catalonia from international comparisons in the 2025 PISA education assessment.

The appearance was requested by Illa himself in a letter sent on Monday and approved by the Parliament's Board of Spokespersons on Wednesday, according to 20minutos. For pupils, parents and schools, the immediate consequence is that Catalonia cannot use the 2025 PISA data to make a statistically valid comparison of pupils' performance with other education systems.

PISA is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's international assessment of 15-year-old pupils. RTVE reported that 23.2% of selected pupils in Catalonia were excluded from the tests, compared with the recommended maximum of 5%, leaving the sample insufficiently representative for international comparison.

Parliamentary session scheduled before policy debate

Illa's intervention will be the only item on the parliamentary agenda before the first general policy debate of the new session. Parliamentary groups will have two speaking turns each in response to the president's explanation, RTVE reported.

Opposition parties had also sought his appearance. ERC, Junts, Comuns, Vox and CUP were among the groups that requested explanations over the handling of the assessment.

Education department faces internal action

The error arose during the selection of the pupil sample for PISA. The Department of Education has opened disciplinary proceedings involving three staff members and Esther Niubó, the Catalan education minister, has dismissed the department's secretary-general, Teresa Sambola, according to RTVE.

  • 23 September: Illa is due to address the parliamentary plenary session.
  • 23.2%: the pupil exclusion rate reported by RTVE for Catalonia's PISA sample.
  • 5%: the recommended maximum exclusion rate cited by RTVE.

Niubó has said the Catalan education system continues to be assessed through external international tests. RTVE reported that, for now, she is not scheduled to appear before Parliament over the PISA matter.

Reported by elmon.cat, 20minutos.es, rtve.es, Parlament de Catalunya, elnacional.cat, ARA, ultimahora.es, elpais.com, elmundo.es, elperiodico.com, cadenalaser.com, newtral.es, El Món.