Grade 9 students did better this year on the Portuguese national tests, but their performance on the math exam was worse than their peers who took it last year.
In Portugal, the median class in this year’s Stage 1 final cycle tests was 61%, down from 55% last year, according to data released Tuesday by the National Examination Jury.
Math saw a slight decline in the national average, which rose from 45% to 43%, both negative averages.
About 78.2% of students passed the Portuguese test, and the majority of students (58%) succeeded in mathematics (92%).
However, the mean score in Mathematics shows a larger spread of scores (SD 27) compared to Portuguese (SD 16).
For example, in math there were many more students with zeros (3131), but also many more with 20 values (726), while in Portuguese only eight students had a zero and only 57 had a maximum score.
In 1217 schools, almost 200,000 final tests of the 3rd stage were conducted, while 57 educational institutions accepted tests in electronic form.
The final e-cycle of the Portuguese language was taken by 3481 students and the math test by 3005 students.
Due to declining enrollment, tests in Portuguese as a Second Language and Portuguese as a Second Language were conducted in all schools and for all students in a digital format.
“In total, 6,622 students participated in this pilot project,” the trustee said in a statement.
The tests were corrected by 4,242 teachers, but there were about ten thousand supervising teachers who belonged to the school examination secretariats.