Panama withdraws from the PISA 2025 test, despite progress in preparations

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Panama will not participate in the PISA 2025 test (Program for International Student Assessment)organized by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This international evaluation, which is carried out every three years and whose results reflect the state of education one year later, allows countries to measure the performance of their students and the effectiveness of their educational policies.

He Ministry of Education (Meduca) notified the OECD about Panama’s withdrawal from the test on July 29, as reported Andreas Schleicher, Director of Education of the international organizationin statements to The Press. Schleicher regretted this decision, pointing out that the country had already completed much of the preparations and that the national version of the PISA 2025 test was ready to be administered.

Schleicher highlighted that Panama’s participation in the test PISA 2025 It would have been a unique opportunity to collect data on new areas of assessment, in particular, students’ competencies in environmental science and their attitudes toward climate change and other ecological challenges. According to the OECD Director of Education, these areas are of special relevance in a global context where environmental sustainability is becoming increasingly important.

Additionally, the 2025 trial was designed to provide valuable findings to participating countries on the most effective policies and practices to improve student learning and well-being. Without Panama’s participation, the country is left without an international comparative reference that could have helped strengthen its educational policies and identify key areas of improvement.

The father of the PISA testSchleicher, explained that the cost of the country’s participation in the evaluation amounted to 199,105 euros in total ($217,910), which covers the basic costs of the international evaluation. Although there would be additional costs for the national implementation of the test, the OECD director estimated that these would not reach 8 million dollars, highlighting that the financial effort could have been manageable for the country, considering the value of the data that the evaluation would provide.

The intention to withdraw from the test was announced by the Minister of Education herself, Lucy Molinar. 15 days after taking office, in an interview on the program Way a Way of Rangefinderdeclared that “any test will only confirm what we already know about education in the country.”

“With that money I can train teachers and equip schools. For example, we have schools with a bachelor’s degree in science, but without laboratories. How do these students come out? “I’m not going to spend $8 million on a test to tell me what I already know,” Molinar stressed, questioning the effectiveness and cost of these academic evaluations.

However, at that time, the minister clarified that the decision would be made by education experts: “They have the final decision,” stated the official, referring to national and international organizations with educational purposes that advise Panama on this issue.

In 2012, Meduca, under the Molinar administration, decided not to participate in the international evaluation.

An investment for the future

In the opinion of the psychologist and former president of the Education Commission of the Panamanian Association of Business Executives (Apede), Noemi Castillo, Panama must continue to carry out both national and international tests, since education is an investment for the future.

He stressed that the PISA test does not only measure the academic knowledge of students; What it really evaluates is cumulative learning in the basic subjects of language, mathematics and science, as well as the development of skills that will allow young people to face the challenges of daily life. This information is crucial to help schools and education policy makers take a closer look at their teachers, students, schools and education regions, he added.

According to Castillo, the cost of the last evaluation of the oecd in the country it was approximately 375,000 dollars. This is a value that can increase significantly due to several factors, including the cost of printing the proofs, although they can also be applied digitally. In addition, expenses related to evaluators, transportation, travel expenses, evaluation of results, preparation of databases, analysis and dissemination of information can raise the total cost to nearly 3 million dollars.

For his part, the teacher leader Humberto Monteroindicated that if Meduca decides not to participate in PISA, it can choose to review the educational curriculum, to later begin doing regional tests in order to know the level of knowledge of the students.

He added that participation in the PISA test is not only to obtain a score, but also helps students in aspects of analysis for their future.

The PISA test does not evaluate the specific contents of curricular programs, but rather focuses on the recognition and assessment of the skills and knowledge acquired by students in reading, mathematics and science.

PISA results

In the last PISA test, Panama ranked 74th out of 81 countries evaluated, including 14 from Latin America and the Caribbean. This educational test, of global reference and carried out every three years, was carried out between July and August 2022, with the participation of 5,308 15-year-old students, distributed in 243 official and private schools in the 16 educational regions. It assessed competencies in key areas of learning, such as reading, mathematics and science.

The portrait of Panamanian education left by the results corresponding to 2022, presented in December 2023 simultaneously on several continents, showed that there is a lot of work to do to improve educational quality in the country.

The PISA evaluation carried out in 2018 also left Panama in a disadvantaged position in teaching compared to the average of OECD countries. On that occasion, some 6,300 15-year-old students from official and private schools participated.

In the 2018 test, 77 countries were evaluated and Panama came in 71st place. At that time, 6,270 students participated, a random sample of a total of 72,084 15-year-old students.