Perhaps the greatest reason for collective pride in our democracy is Education. Portugal is still, by far, the least educated country in Europe, but it is on the right track to finally stop being so. We expanded the school to almost everyone, and we did so without compromising quality: on the contrary, today’s students are much better than those of my generation, and have infinitely better results than my parents and grandparents. A remarkable feat by all.
In the year 2000, half of Portuguese adults still had no more than 4th grade, but the schooling of younger people continued to make its way. When I was born, in the early 90s, around half of children and young people did not complete schooling beyond basic education. Today, we can say that we are a country where the overwhelming majority of students complete secondary education.
The most extraordinary thing is that the expansion of the school to all children did not come at the cost of reducing the quality and ease that so many tout. Phrases like “it used to be good” and “they don’t know anything now” are not true to reality. The results, especially from the first two decades of the 21st century, were extraordinarily positive. Despite the tragic debacle of recent school years, most children at the beginning of this decade still had much better results than they did 20 years ago. In fact, these students were even better than the many European countries we compare ourselves to and idolize.
Not everything is roses, or carnations, rather. Over the last 20 years, the country has unforgivably failed to reduce inequalities at school and combat the impact that poverty has on our ability to get good grades.
In fact, the success of our education system, and the convergence of our students with the rest of Europe, can never be seen as a given, but rather as something for which we must always continue to fight.
In the decade in which we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 25th of April, the Portuguese education system finds itself on a downward path for the first time. The pandemic, and recent education policies, have generated a drastic drop in student results in all areas and, worse, left us with an education system without enough teachers. The period 2020-2030 risks marking the first generation that had access to a worse public (and private) school than their parents.
There is a lot to do and celebrate, but it is also important not to forget that life is built looking forward: we are now the same distance from 1974 as we are from 2074, and it is time to plan, innovate and think about the future of the country and what schools we want to create.
In the year 2000, half of Portuguese adults still had no more than 4th grade, but the schooling of younger people continued to make its way. When I was born, in the early 90s, around half of children and young people did not complete schooling beyond basic education. Today, we can say that we are a country where the overwhelming majority of students complete secondary education.
The most extraordinary thing is that the expansion of the school to all children did not come at the cost of reducing the quality and ease that so many tout. Phrases like “it used to be good” and “they don’t know anything now” are not true to reality. The results, especially from the first two decades of the 21st century, were extraordinarily positive. Despite the tragic debacle of recent school years, most children at the beginning of this decade still had much better results than they did 20 years ago. In fact, these students were even better than the many European countries we compare ourselves to and idolize.
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The Portuguese education system is on a downward trend for the first time.
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