Students with high abilities: "It was said that attending to them was like giving money to the rich"

PalmaIn the classroom, the ones who need help the most don't always get the most attention. Often, the opposite is true. Among students with visible difficulties and a strained educational system, there's a group that still falls by the wayside: students with high abilities. In the Balearic Islands, there are 3,128 identified, a figure much lower than what is estimated to exist. “It has been little recognized, little understood, and little identified”, explains Rosabel Rodríguez, director of the Program for the Attention of Intellectual High Abilities (PACiS) at the UIB. This lack of recognition has consequences: “They are given very deficient educational attention in general. Many times, it doesn't even exist”.

For years, they have been practically absent from the educational system. In the 90s and 2000s, attention was minimal and often frowned upon. “I even went to centers where they told me that attending to them was ‘like giving money to the rich’”, recalls Rodríguez. Over time, the discourse has changed. Today it is recognized that these children and young people “have different ways of learning, at a different pace, and that they need adaptations”.

But this change does not always reach the classroom. "More has been achieved in theory than in practice," warns Rodríguez. Even today, he says, "very small, scarce curricular adaptations are made, and often they are not even made." The key, he argues, is that the educational response must be given within the classroom, with a flexible curriculum, because "the educational response cannot be the same for everyone." Detection is one of the first obstacles. In the Balearic Islands, there has been a protocol since 2015, but its application is not mandatory. "It is voluntary: centers that want to apply it do so, and those that don't, don't," points out Rodríguez. This means that many students are not even identified.

Underdiagnosis

Maria José Cordero, vice president of ABSAC Mallorca and mother of two daughters with high abilities, summarizes it with forceful data: “Of the 10% that should have been identified, there are just over 1%. There should be at least about 20,000”. For her, the problem is clear: “If the students are not identified, what happens is that they are in the classroom and have needs that are not known”. The lack of knowledge also affects teachers. “Teachers do not have tools and training is needed to do this detection work”, states Cordero. And she adds: “how can I do my job if I am not trained?”. The lack of training is a constant that is repeated in all areas.

Francisco Tienda is the director of IES Quartó de Portmany and acknowledges that there is still a lot of work to do: “There is a need for training in this area”. He also warns of a myth that still weighs on schools: “The idea that ‘if they are intelligent, they will fend for themselves’ still persists”. This belief is one of the causes of the lack of attention.

Nevertheless, some schools have started to take steps. At his institute, detection has been carried out in the first year of ESO for years. But it is not enough to identify them. “What needs to be done is to listen to them and understand what they need,” he says. The needs are very diverse. Not all students with high abilities respond in the same way. Some need more depth, others more pace, and others prefer not to stand out. Maria Sureda, a therapeutic pedagogue (PT) at IES Manacor, explains it like this: “There are students who do not want to be different”. Therefore, in some cases, more discreet programs are offered within the same school or externally, to enhance their skills and interests.

Despite these efforts, the system is still under strain. “There are schools that neglect these students, because other more visible needs are prioritized,” points out Sureda. Inclusive education has increased diversity within the ordinary classroom, but often with the same resources, which makes it difficult to attend to everyone. The consequences are clear. Far from the myth that they always succeed, many students with high abilities end up disconnecting. “There are many cases of high abilities behind which school failure is hidden,” warns Rodríguez. The problem is not the ability, but the fit. “Often the problems arise when education does not adapt to these abilities, which can lead to boredom,” he adds.

Boredom can lead to demotivation and poor performance. Tienda confirms it: “there are identified students who end up dropping out and don't even do basic vocational training”. There are also invisible cases, of students with school failure who have never been identified. The emotional dimension is another key factor. “They need emotional attention”, says Tienda. Some students may feel they don't fit in with their peers, a situation that can cause isolation or rejection towards school.

Behind this lie many school failures

The testimony of an anonymous family puts a face to the reality. “I feel like I haven't been given any support,” explains the mother of a 16-year-old boy. Her son was not identified until the first year of secondary school, after years of signs that no one knew how to interpret. “In Primary, no one noticed anything,” she recalls. Despite obtaining the diagnosis, the situation did not improve. “Now he has recognition of high abilities… but nothing has changed at school.” Difficulties are accumulating: disorganization, lack of habits, and demotivation. “The system has failed since Primary school,” she states. Today, her son is failing subjects, even Mathematics, the area where he has the most ability. “They rely everything on motivation,” says the mother. She considers that the problem is that aspects like study strategies and planning have not been worked on with him.

This case is not exceptional. It summarizes many of the system's shortcomings: late detection, lack of adaptations, and absence of real support. The challenge, according to all sources, is to move from discourse to practice. “We cannot resign ourselves to just talking about it”, warns Rodríguez. The issue goes beyond high abilities, because it calls into question the system's ability to address real diversity. Because, as Rodríguez recalls, “you cannot cater to some and forget others”. For too long, even though progress has been made, these students have been precisely the others.