Minister wants to study students’ growing difficulties in maths and reading

On Tuesday, the education minister expressed concern about the results of Portuguese students in international tests, stressing that it is necessary to identify the reasons that lead to students around the world having more difficulties with maths or reading.

The results of the largest international study of student learning in 2022, conducted on more than 690,000 students around the world, were published on Tuesday and show the increasing difficulties that 15-year-olds are having with their studies. We work on basic math and reading tasks.

Portugal is following this trend: nearly seven thousand students in Portuguese schools who took the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) mathematics test in 2022 scored 20 points lower than their counterparts who took it in 2018.

“When we see a decline in results, we should be concerned and must analyze the results carefully,” Education Minister João Costa said in a statement to reporters, stressing that “falls in results occur in countries with very different teaching policies.” “.

The report, released Tuesday, acknowledges that it is not yet possible to determine the causes of this global trend without identifying the exact driver or specific education policy.

“We have very different countries in the way we teach, in the curriculum we develop, with a similar trend” of falling scores, João Costa said, recalling that this PISA was “highly anticipated” because it was the first international study conducted. after the pandemic.

However, OECD researchers say the decline in results cannot be attributed solely to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“There is a decline associated with the pandemic, but the pandemic does not explain everything, because since 2012 there has been a decline in the OECD average, which has not yet been sufficiently explained,” said the minister who delivered the address. to the OECD to analyze this phenomenon.

The ministry paid special attention to countries that systematically show good results. In maths, students in Singapore schools are performing better again, while Portugal is taking notice of what’s happening on the other side of the world.

“The team that created our new curriculum attended many OECD mathematics meetings and worked very closely with the Singapore curriculum to bring us closer curriculum-wise to what Singapore is doing because it is the best country,” the minister said. . .

When it comes to reading, the focus is on countries like Ireland or Estonia “that have good results” and a curriculum that offers “a wide variety of ways of reading, a variety of reading techniques, rather than such a classical curriculum in the language area ” as it was in other countries.”

Looking at the participation of Portuguese students in PISA, whose first tests were carried out in 2000, João Costa recalled that in the first decade of the century, Portugal began a “very rapid increase in results”, which then moved closer to the OECD average. followed by “convergence that continues to occur even after results have fallen.”

“Portugal is a typical medium-sized OECD country,” added Thiago Caliso, an OECD education analyst, during the presentation of PISA results in Lisbon on Tuesday.

The study published on Tuesday also shows that “there is no difference between public and private schools,” said João Costa, who also wanted to highlight the fact that Portuguese students are among those who feel best at school and that “this is a safe place.” “, with students reporting several incidents of “bullying.”

Another point that is highlighted in the PISA report is the increase in the number of immigrant students in schools, which increased from 7% in 2018 to 11% in 2022 and which “motivated the attention” of the guardianship authorities, the minister assured.

A welcoming guide for international students was developed last year, but Joao Costa admitted on Tuesday that more measures were needed for those students for whom language is the first barrier to learning.