Students are failing less and less, but it is in high school that they have the most difficulty.

Students fail less and less in all cycles, but they still face great difficulties in secondary education: only 77% make it to the end of the expected three years.

The conclusions are based on an analysis carried out by Lusa based on data updated by the Ministry of Education for the 2020/2021 school year, which shows that since at least the 2017/2018 school year, student performance has been improving and they are becoming more successful. those who manage to complete each cycle without failure.

The most significant improvement was recorded in secondary education, where 77% of finalists completed their compulsory school career without failing in either of the previous two years, which was achieved by 70% of peers in 2017/2018.

Academic performance levels are higher in science and engineering courses, with an above-average completion rate in expected time (80%), followed by social and economic sciences (75%), languages ​​and humanities (72%) and fine arts (68% ). ).

Of the 547 schools for which data are available, eight have achieved full completion of secondary school for all students, seven in the North Region and one in the Center.

In contrast, Colégio D. Filipa in Amadora ranks last on the list with 41%, while the Lisbon metropolitan area also has a lower achievement rate.

On the other hand, when looking at retention rates, year 12 seems to be the hardest of the three, with the highest student failure rate (11%). However, this result is well below the four-academic-year average recorded since 2017/2018 of 18%, confirming the upward trend in success.

The transition from Cycle 3 to Intermediate is also challenging for students, with a 10% dropout rate recorded in 10th year, which contrasts with the 3% reported among 11th year students.

In just two years, it is in Cycle 2 that students achieve higher levels of success, and the vast majority (95%) were able to pass Years 5 and 6 with no problems. In 2020/2021, only 3% of 96,106 children in 5th grade and 97,244 in 6th grade failed their exams.

Of the 1019 schools for which data are available, 266 managed to ensure that all their students completed the 2nd cycle without fail (about 26%) and of these, the Luisa Todi Academy of Music and Fine Arts in Setúbal stands out for its one that distanced itself the most from the national average among students with a similar profile by nine percentage points.

Although Cycle 2 has the highest completion rate over the expected time, it is Cycle 1 that registers the lowest retention rates, with the exception of Year 2, in which 4% of 85,213 students failed exams.

However, 91% of the children who made it to Cycle 2 last year never failed, and in 491 schools out of 2,198 elementary schools, none of these students failed.

However, there was one school in Lisbon – Escola Básica das Galinheiras – where only 13% of students completed the first four years of study without fail.

In cycle 3, nine out of 10 students graduated in three years, it was in the 7th year that most students fell behind (in 2020/2021 they failed 6% of 101,096), followed by the 8th year (4% ). and 9th (3%).

That year, only 104 out of 1,120 had 100 percent completion on time.

As with secondary education, the Northern Region recorded the highest achievement rates, with 94%, 97% and 93% of students in the region completing cycles 1, 2 and 3, respectively, within the expected time frame.

On the other hand, the Algarve region recorded the lowest rates with 87% in 1st cycle, 93% in 2nd cycle, 2nd cycle and 85% in 3rd cycle.