Students of bilingual education in primary school
get worse results according to a UC3M study.
We have tried to assess the impact
that the Bilingual Education Programme
implemented in the Community of Madrid
since 2004,
which consists in studying different subjects in English
besides the English subject,
has had on the students' learning in other subjects.
(Music)
We have found a negative effect,
about the skills and knowledge level
of the students who followed this bilingual programme,
on those subjects that were taught in English.
The outcome of these students
on the Indispensable Knowledge exam,
that the Community of Madrid prepares for the students
when finishing primary school, is a bit lower
than the one of students who did not follow that Programme.
This negative outcome usually occurs
to students whose parents have a lower educational level,
not to students whose parents have a higher educational level.
(Music)
With respect to the subjects that were not taught in English,
which are basically Maths and Spanish,
they get the same results
as the students who did not follow the Programme,
which is especially relevant
for reading comprehension in Spanish,
because the students who follow this Programme
spend fewer hours using Spanish.
The issue raised by these results is that we need to choose.
Time, resources and effort are limited,
and the fact of devoting more effort to a subject
might be detrimental to another one. We should make a choice
or establish additional compensatory measures
which solve this.
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