# Excellence and equality in school: what PISA 2022 says about Spain and Estonia

> In PISA 2022 Spain scored 473 in mathematics, level with the OECD and EU averages, with results more equal than the OECD average but only 6% of top performers, the share of countries that score well below it. Estonia scored 510 with 13% top performers and 85% of pupils above the basic level, and only 4% of its 15-year-olds had repeated a year, against 22% in Spain. The radical-centre lesson: excellence and equality grow together when struggling pupils get help early and able pupils get stretch inside the same classroom, so Spain should replace grade repetition with early catch-up and in-class extension.

- URL: https://www.radicalcentre.eu/en/articles/excellence-equality-school-pisa-spain-estonia
- Language: en
- Publisher: radical centre / centro radical
- Published: 2026-10-31
- Topic: Public services
- Author: radical centre
- Licence: CC BY 4.0

## Key points

- Spain scored 473 in PISA 2022 mathematics (OECD average 472, EU 474); Estonia scored 510, third among OECD and EU countries after Japan and Korea.
- Only 6% of Spanish pupils reached the top levels 5 and 6 in maths, the same share as Latvia, Croatia or Turkey, countries with much lower average scores; Estonia had 13% (OECD 9%).
- Spain's results are more equal than the OECD average: socio-economic background explains about 16% of the variation in maths, close to the OECD's 15%; Estonia's figure is 13%.
- 22% of Spanish 15-year-olds had repeated a year, and at equal maths scores a disadvantaged pupil was almost four times as likely to have repeated; in Estonia only 4% had.
- Excellence and equality move together when pupils get support early and stretch inside the same classroom.

[Democracia 21's launch speech](/en/articles/democracia-21-miriam-gonzalez-proposals-radical-centre) says that education has to give more support to those who fall behind and more room to those who can go further, and that excellence and equality go together. It's one of the claims in the speech that the data can test directly, because PISA measures both ends of the class. The last full round, PISA 2022, published in December 2023, puts Spain and Estonia side by side in a way that settles the question and points at what Spain should change.

## Where Spain stands

Spain's 15-year-olds scored 473 in mathematics, the main subject of the 2022 round. The ministry's evaluation institute (INEE) reports that this is statistically the same as the OECD average (472) and the EU total (474), level with Germany, France, Lithuania and Hungary. Like almost everyone, Spain fell after the pandemic: 8 points since 2018, against 17 for the OECD average and 20 for the EU. Castilla y León (499), Asturias and Cantabria (495) led the regions.

Spain's strength is equality. The INEE plots each country's average against the spread between its stronger and weaker pupils, and Spain lands in the good quadrant, higher than average and more equal than average, alongside Estonia, Ireland, Poland, Denmark, Slovenia, Finland and Lithuania. EsadeEcPol's analysis, by Lucía Cobreros and Lucas Gortazar, finds that about 16% of the differences in maths scores trace back to pupils' socio-economic background, close to the OECD average and unchanged since 2018, and that segregation of schools by social class is below the OECD average, though still high in Madrid and Catalonia.

Spain's weakness is the top. Only 6% of Spanish pupils reached levels 5 and 6 in mathematics. The INEE itself points out the anomaly: in most countries the share of top performers rises with the average, and Spain's share sits with Latvia, Croatia and Turkey, whose averages are significantly lower. A system with an average result and a thin top end is holding back the pupils who could go furthest.

And there is a habit Spain pays for at the bottom. In PISA 2022, 22% of Spanish 15-year-olds had repeated a year, down from 28% in 2018, partly because of automatic promotion after the 2020 lockdown. EsadeEcPol found that at the same maths score, a disadvantaged pupil was almost four times as likely to have repeated as an advantaged one, the second-largest gap in the OECD.

## What Estonia does differently

Estonia scored 510 in mathematics, third among OECD and EU countries after Japan and Korea in the ministry's comparison. Its OECD country note shows both ends at once: 85% of pupils reached at least the basic level 2 in maths (OECD average 69%), and 13% were top performers (OECD 9%), with 11% at the top in reading and 12% in science. Socio-economic background explained 13% of the variation in maths, a little below the OECD's 15%, and the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged pupils was 81 points against an OECD average of 93. That gap widened in Estonia between 2012 and 2022, which is a warning even for the best.

Two details in the country note stand out for Spain. Some 96% of Estonian pupils had attended pre-school for a year or more, and the OECD notes that across countries those pupils score higher at 15 even after accounting for background. And only 4% of Estonian 15-year-olds had repeated a year, against an OECD average of 9%; the note adds that repetition tends to be rarer in high-performing systems.

So the excellence-versus-equality dilemma dissolves in the data. Estonia has fewer pupils at the bottom and more at the top, from the same comprehensive schools.

## Support and stretch in the same classroom

The left is right that a common comprehensive school with low segregation and real support for those who fall behind is the base of a fair system, and Spain's relative equality is an achievement worth protecting. The market-liberal tradition is right that schools need high expectations and room for those who can go further, and that a country with 6% of top performers wastes talent it needs.

What fits neither camp is the specific change Spain's numbers point to. Repetition is Spain's main tool for pupils who fall behind, and it lands disproportionately on poorer children at the same level of performance. Amartya Sen would ask what a pupil can actually do after the extra year; the [comparative question](/en/articles/what-is-comparative-justice-sen) is what the same effort buys elsewhere. So make repetition the exception, decided case by case, and move that effort into early catch-up: small-group tutoring in primary as soon as a pupil falls behind in reading or maths, when the gap is still small. At the other end, give able pupils extension inside the same class and school, harder problems, olympiad-style clubs, the chance to take a subject a year ahead, without separating them into different schools at 12.

Then measure both ends, as Popper's [piecemeal reform](/en/articles/karl-popper-the-open-society-explained) requires: each region should report every year its share of pupils below the basic level and its share at the top, and try the catch-up and extension programmes first in some schools, with comparison groups, before rolling them out. That gives the speech's "excellence and equality together" a number to answer to, and Estonia shows the number can be reached. The [first three years](/en/articles/early-years-education-0-3-spain-proposal) are where the support starts.

## FAQ

### How did Spain do in PISA 2022?

Spain scored 473 in mathematics, statistically level with the OECD (472) and EU (474) averages, after falling 8 points since 2018, less than the OECD's 17-point drop. Castilla y León (499), Asturias and Cantabria (495) scored highest among the regions.

### Why does Estonia do so well in PISA?

Estonia combines a high average (510 in maths), many top performers (13%) and few low performers (85% above the basic level). Almost all its pupils attended pre-school for a year or more, and very few repeat a year. The OECD's country note also shows its social gap is smaller than the OECD average, though it widened between 2012 and 2022.

### Can a school system have excellence and equality at the same time?

Yes. In PISA 2022 Spain's ministry places Estonia, Ireland, Poland, Denmark, Slovenia, Finland and Lithuania, along with Spain, among the systems with both higher-than-average results and smaller-than-average spread. Estonia shows that the best systems also produce more top performers.

### How many pupils repeat a year in Spain?

In PISA 2022, 22% of Spanish 15-year-olds said they had repeated at least once, down from 28% in 2018. EsadeEcPol found that at the same maths score a disadvantaged pupil was almost four times as likely to have repeated as an advantaged one, the second-largest gap in the OECD.

## Sources

- [Resultados de PISA 2022 (Boletín de Educación educainee, número 79)](https://libreria.educacion.gob.es/ebook/184853/free_download), Ministerio de Educación, Formación Profesional y Deportes (INEE) (2023)
- [PISA 2022 Results: Country note, Estonia](https://hm.ee/sites/default/files/documents/2023-12/Countrynote_EST.pdf), OECD (published by Estonia's Ministry of Education and Research) (2023)
- [Everything you need to know about PISA 2022 on equity](https://www.esade.edu/ecpol/en/publications/everything-you-need-to-know-about-pisa-2022-on-equity/), EsadeEcPol (Lucía Cobreros and Lucas Gortazar) (2023)