How do you solve a problem like Spain’s low literacy?

Spain performed poorly on the latest OECD study, but it's education standards are improving faster than almost all other countries

Spain and Italy have been ranked bottom among the 24 leading developed countries for levels of literacy and numeracy, according to a survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

But before any of those countries’ neighbours begin feeling too smug, the UK and France ranked poorly too, as did the USA. In contrast, Finland and Japan came out on top in most metrics, with the OECD ranking workers from these nations as among the most skilled in the world…

The charts make for some interesting reading. Despite boasting an abundance of startups and self-made millionaires, the Anglo Saxon ways of the USA and the UK were evidently not always conducive to an educated society. Scandinavian countries performed admirably as always, suggesting a more socialist, egalitarian approach to education produces a more well-rounded workforce.

Yet Spain (and to a lesser extent Italy) bucks that trend. Despite high standards of free education throughout the country, Spaniards’ education levels still varied dramatically. In the main cities and more cosmopolitan areas, all you need are your own eyes and ears to realise that Spain knows how to educate its upwardly mobile youngsters.

Head into more rural areas, however, and the situation is vastly different. Spain remains a largely traditional society in many regions, and beyond the science parks of Valencia, the business districts of Madrid and the arty cafés of Barcelona are thousands of scattered pueblos where working the land is more important than gaining a few letters before one’s name.

The OECD study was the most extensive effort yet to attempt to measure people’s skills according to the education they received. Leading economists have said that Spain’s poor performance could harm its economic recovery – a recovery made more challenging now that thousands of educated Spaniards have left the country in search of work overseas.

Although Italy ranked bottom for literacy, Spain was placed 23rd out of 24, with the OECD findings showing that one in five adult Spaniards cannot read as well as a 10-year-old child ensconced in a sound education system would be able to. In numeracy, however, Spain came bottom, with one in three adults possessing only the most basic numeracy skills.

“If you measure Spain by the number of university degrees, it looks good,” said the OECD’s deputy director for education and skills, Andreas Schleicher. “But that doesn’t tell the whole truth. The low skill base will limit the capacity to grow.”

In a nutshell, Spain has a solid proportion of highly educated individuals but far too many people lack even a basic level of education. It is an invisible class system, hamstrung by inflexible labour laws that mean that even highly educated Spaniards cannot always find the employment opportunities that would allow them to fulfil their potential.

“Even the highly skilled are not well used,” added Schleicher.

But there is a chink of good news buried among the gloom. Although Spain ranks low for overall literacy levels, it actually ranks second in terms of literacy improvement, after South Korea. So Spain is actually improving its education faster than almost all other countries.

As for the UK, despite embarrassingly low levels of numeracy and literacy, the OECD remarked that Britain, along with its American cousins, has created a society and employment culture that knows how to get the most out of its workforce.

“The US and UK are very good at extracting the maximum out of their higher skilled worker force, and are exceptionally good at ensuring that workers’ skills are fully exploited,” said Schleicher.

Spaniards, it would appear, are only slightly less educated than their British and American peers. The difference is that Spain’s inflexible labour market, often prone to bouts of nepotism, actually holds back the higher educated and lets down those with a poor education.

Fix that, and Spain’s economy will soon be back on track.