Why Catholic religion is not the cause of poor PISA results

Religion in school: the excuse that doesn't match PISA

The blame for Spain’s poor performance in the PISA report is not the Catholic religion, but the educational model that integrates it. This is the thesis put forward by a professor on social media, sparking intense debate about the subject's role in the curriculum. However, the data suggests that this simplification is louder than it is factual.

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What is true about the professor's thesis?

The trigger was a tweet from teacher @Paco Serrano. In it, he claimed that the top ten countries in the PISA report, apart from the United Kingdom, share a common trait: religion is not taught in school. “Two hours a week are not wasted indoctrinating into dogma,” he wrote. The provocation peine Pandora’s box: defenders of the subject remind that Catholic religion is optional and can be taken as culture or belief, while critics see those two hours as a drag on academic performance.

The correlation is not that simple. There are elite educational countries, like Finland, which include notions of religion in their curriculum, albeit from a cultural perspective. That is, it is not the presence of the subject itself, but its model: catechesis or culture. In Spain, the debate is torn between those who want a secular school and those who defend family freedom. Some also point out that the real problems are underfunding, lack of teacher autonomy, and inequality between regions.

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Are two hours a week determinative?

The fact of the two hours is real, but its impact is debatable. According to analyses, the difference between countries with and without religion in school is not significant when controlled for socioeconomic levels. The key lies in the quality of teaching, not the time dedicated to an optional subject. Nevertheless, every year thousands of students forgo math or reading reinforcement to attend religious classes. Hence, the argument that those hours could be used for core competencies is not outlandish.

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Everything suggests that the solution lies not in suppressing religion, but in reviewing how it is taught and what is invested. The next edition of the PISA report, which is already underway, will provide new clues. Until then, the shots in this ideological battle will continue to ring out, while the results vanish into the limbo of clichés.