On Wednesday, however, Meisch was present in the parliamentary commission on education session in order to explain the results of the PISA study to MPs. Despite his absence last week, the minister stressed the importance of drawing political conclusions from the results.
Meisch’s main line was that Luxembourg has performed similarly in every instance it has taken part, leaving the minister to suggest the Grand Duchy only participate every six years, rather than every three years. Consequently, the gap between studies would allow the ministry to examine the results in greater detail.
The minister drew upon the expertise of researchers to argue that Luxembourg’s current performance is due to reforms not yet having become effective. He stressed that those students who took the test in 2018 only began their schooling in 2006. This, the minister explained, means that reforms introduced recently have not had any effect on these students, as they were introduced after they began going to school.
These students have not wholly experienced reforms involving the diversification of the educational offer and multi-lingual changes. Meisch used this point to underline that the PISA study has thus not evaluated the improvement of Luxembourg’s school system, the results of which would only be visible by 2030 at the earliest, or possibly even 2035.
Opposition party CSV acknowledged that Luxembourg is certainly beholden to a unique situation as 55% of students have an immigrant background. Nevertheless, party leader in the Chamber of Deputies Martine Hansen pointed out that Luxembourg has deteriorated in comparison to its own record. She added that the government lacks a concrete and systematic approach.
She highlighted that reading comprehension has degraded by 11 points, a drop Hansen finds ‘incredibly dramatic': “Regardless of what competencies we want to promote in the twenty-first century, reading is the basis of any kind of learning. We need to work on this.”
The ADR believed Meisch was attempting to present the results in a better light, adding that the suggestion of Luxembourg taking part every six years is related to the electoral calendar. Fernand Kartheiser described the suggestion as a ‘politically comfortable solution’.
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