More than 8% of 15-year-old schoolchildren skip meals due to lack of money

Portuguese 15-year-old students have worsened their results on the international PISA maths and reading tests in 2022, reversing an improving trend seen over the past decade.

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) has once again analyzed students around the world’s performance in maths, reading and science – some 690,000 students from 81 countries and economies took part in 2022 – and the portrait of student performance shows an “unprecedented breakthrough”. “, in which Portugal was no exception.

Nearly seven thousand students from 224 Portuguese schools who took the tests in 2022 scored worse than their counterparts in 2018, placing Portugal among the countries with the biggest decline in maths, an OECD report said on Tuesday.

“Compared with 2018, average achievement fell by ten points in reading and almost 15 points in mathematics, the equivalent of three-quarters of a year of schooling,” emphasizes Matthias Kornmann, OECD Secretary-General, in a textual foreword to the report. .

In Portugal, student results were even stronger: in mathematics, students scored 472 points, which is 20.6 points less than in the tests conducted in 2018. Compared to the test results in 2012, they decreased by 14.6 points.

This puts Portugal among 19 countries that have dropped their maths levels by more than 20 points, with scores falling among both the neediest and most privileged students.

Three out of every ten students were unable to demonstrate that they had minimal proficiency in mathematics, that is, they did not achieve level two on the six-digit scale.

Only 7% of Portuguese students excelled, achieving the highest proficiency levels in mathematics (5 and 6), a subject in which six Asian countries again dominated.

In Singapore, 41% of students demonstrated very high proficiency, as did 32% of students in Taiwan.

This is followed by students from Macau and China (29% with very good results), Hong Kong (27%), Japan (23%) and Korea (23%).

Socioeconomic status is one of the factors that most influences academic results, and in Portugal, Portuguese students from more privileged backgrounds had an average score of 522, 101 points higher than the average of the most disadvantaged students.

This difference in results is not far from the OECD average of 93 points, according to a study published today that examined success stories among those most in need.

In Portugal, about 9% of disadvantaged students achieve top grades in mathematics, compared with the OECD average of 10%.

Although PISA 2022 is more focused on showing knowledge in mathematics, a reading test was also carried out and the average results deteriorated again: Portuguese students scored 477 points, representing a decrease of 15.2 points compared to 2018 and a decrease of 12.8 points compared to 2012. .

Despite the decline, 77% of Portuguese students managed to achieve at least level two, above the OECD average of 74%. This result means that these young people can at least identify main ideas in a medium-length text, find information, and reflect on the purpose and form of the text.

Only 5% of Portuguese achieved a level 5 or 6 in reading (7% is the OECD average), a level that already requires the ability to understand fairly long texts, have a good grasp of abstract concepts and be able to distinguish between fact and opinion.

In the Science test, Portugal emerges as a success story, bucking the trend of worsening results: in 2022 they received 484 points, just 7.3 points less than in 2018 and 2012.

The report found that 78% of students achieved at least level two (the OECD figure is 76%). Among them, 5% performed very well (levels 5 and 6), showing that they are able to apply their scientific knowledge creatively and autonomously in a variety of situations.

When comparing genders, Portuguese boys again performed better in mathematics (plus 11 points) and girls in reading (plus 21 points).

In the report’s introductory text, Matthias Kornmann warned that “one in four 15-year-olds, on average across OECD countries, is now thought to perform poorly in maths, reading and science.”

More than 8% of 15-year-old schoolchildren skip meals due to lack of money

Thousands of 15-year-olds have gone without food because they lack money to buy food, according to the international PISA study, which ranks Portugal as the country with the fewest students affected by the problem.

“On average in OECD countries, 8.2% of students said they had not eaten at least once a week in the past 30 days because they did not have enough money to buy food,” says the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) report. 2022, which was attended by approximately 690 thousand students from 81 countries and economies.

The OECD study, which has been running since 2000, focuses on students’ performance in math, reading and science, but also tries to analyze their well-being by asking them how often they have not eaten due to food shortages. . Money.

The report lists Portugal, along with Finland and the Netherlands, as one of the three OECD countries with the lowest percentage of students going without food: in Portugal the figure is 2.6%; Finland 2.7% and the Netherlands 2.8%.

One in ten Portuguese students feel lonely at school

One in 10 Portuguese students feel lonely at school, but the vast majority say they make friends easily, according to an international study that shows Portuguese people are happier than the OECD average.

In 2022, 76% of Portuguese students said they made friends easily at school, in line with the OECD average of 76%, but many more Portuguese students said they felt a sense of belonging to their school community (82% of Portuguese compared to 75% % in OECD).

On the other hand, one in ten 15-year-old schoolchildren in Portugal admitted to feeling lonely, and a further 11% admitted to being left out, an OECD study published today found.

While the figures highlight a worrying reality, they are well below the OECD school average, with 16% of 15-year-olds feeling lonely and 17% saying they are left out.