Why are PISA scores so low?

You Reasons Portuguese students' performance in PISA declined (Programme for International Student Assessment) And bad results In evaluation tests it is still unclear, though Multiple questions from representatives and the minister’s responses. João Costa complained of the “facilitative” and “reductionist analyzes” conducted by the PSD and the Liberal Initiative in which “important information is collected along the lines,” but he also did not provide a systematic set of reasons to explain the country’s generalized decline. performance.

“It's clear”“The situation worsens,” declared Carla Castro, deputy of the Liberal Initiative, the party that together with the Social Democratic Party requested a hearing for Education Minister João Costa, on Tuesday, January 9, in Parliament.

According to the results published on December 5, 2022, Portugal fell in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in all subjects assessed, recording a performance of 472 points in mathematics (-20.6 compared to 2018), in science (-7.3), and 477 in reading (-15.2). Numbers equal loss One year of knowledge, that is, one year of study compared to 2018.

“You have to go back 15 years to get these results. We are not blind to the impact of the pandemic and the restrictions it imposes on learning, but this does not justify everything. In fact, this is what is stated in the report,” said Sonia Ramos, from the Public Security Directorate. He added: “Failure to recover learning is also a critical factor in these outcomes.” It is time, Mr. Minister, to take responsibility for the failure of the educational policy that was behind the results of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).

The minister responded with a summary of the achievements of Socialist Party governments over the past eight years, accusing the Public Security Directorate of exploiting and abusing the issue of facilities – “Everything is worse in 2024, not in 2014, because it was the government at that time.” In 2008, in 2004 we have statements from figures in the Public Security Directorate, in 2002 as well, in 1997 as well, and in 1999.

Somehow, Joao Costa downplayed the fact that the success was as great as he had boasted in the past. “What happened in 2015 was a convergence with the OECD average, and the results were very worrying at the time, as Portugal is a country where socio-economic disparities appear as a stronger indicator than other countries.”

João Costa also acknowledged the worrying results in the first editions of the assessment tests, adding that since the beginning of 2016, the government has been intervening on several fronts, knowing that “results in education are never immediate.” He added that the results of the measurement tests conducted nearly a year ago will be known very soon, only stating that “no typical effects were observed between the results of paper tests and digital tests.”

He felt that the explanatory factors deserved a more in-depth analysis, with two factors on the table: a very significant difference related to the student profile, which became very different with the decline in school dropout rates and the increase in the number of migrant school students. .

Minister of EducationHe also noted that the government is working to address the problems, citing for example, among other things, the approval in 2016 of a lawCurriculum guidelines for pre-school education, with a strong emphasis on emergent literacy, reading and mathematics, strengthening the national reading plan and opening hundreds of rooms in the general pre-school network, is essential to promote further, later, education.

“What we want is to go further, and actually compare ourselves with major countries,” he declared.

The floor is for the representatives

Tiago Estévão Martins, of the Socialist Party, criticized the debate about it serving as a space to evaluate the performance of governments, and went straight to the point: The decline in PISA did not occur only in Portugal, although it was more pronounced in Portugal: the data are not positive, and in fact That the data is not positive calls for us all to think together, which is based on the assumption that we are collectively trying to understand why there is a widespread decline in the OECD field. This perception and discussion go beyond the differences we point out here about national educational policies.

The young socialist MP focused on three relevant trends. In his statement: “- i) In fact, there is a general decline in student performance in different educational systems and this forces us to think broadly about what is happening at the level of different systems and what we can do to reverse it. ii) Portugal has actually shown an upward trajectory in The indicators, which for some time coincided with a decline in the OECD average, are now convergent (on the decline); 3) an in-depth evaluation of these results is needed.”

For his part, Chiga's representative, Gabriel Mehta Ribeiro, went beyond the PISA issue to level sharp criticism at the socialist government's education policies. “The 2022 PISA results and 2023 PISA results are not the issue. He stated that there are several symptoms of structural failure in the education system that have never been addressed.

The Socialist Party was accused of igniting the fire in the public school that has been burning since 2008 through the system of classifying school results, which mixes quantitative evaluations with qualitative evaluations, with cases where one overlaps with the other and one cancels the other out.

Palestine Communist Party deputy Alfredo Maya, who practically skipped the subject of PISA, began by saying, “And“And their relationship to the results of evaluations, whatever they may be, given the data, meanings and contexts, cannot always be separated from the circumstances.”

“What is the purpose of public schools!?” he asked, answering: “It is to promote inclusion and above all to train citizens who are able to think with their heads. A public school does not have as its mission the kind of social engineering or pedagogical engineering that some schools do.” Especially, when you call on parents to remove students who are not performing well.

The representative then considered that “the public school is a solid democratic acquisition,” and added that the Communist Party does not side with any project to dismantle it, and said that it “will continue the struggle to value it,” especially the teachers, assistants, and workers there. Technicians and in terms of attracting young people to the noble role of the teacher.

Joana Mortagua, of Bloco de Esquerda, noted that the decline in Portugal's PISA scores was more pronounced than in its OECD counterpart, and that the results should give us food for thought. “There seems to be a consensus that the pandemic doesn't excuse everything. In fact, the pandemic did not have the same effects in all countries. It does not justify everything, so what are the other justifications?”

The MP acknowledges that the fact that we have an education system that is more permeable to inequality and that the pandemic and confinement can help explain that, but they will not explain it by themselves. “The shortage of teachers is a central issue. Thousands are missing from schools. Don’t you think this is one of the barriers to a learning recovery? More. And whether this recovery will be seriously affected by the fact that teachers are being recruited into schools with far lower qualifications than those who are leaving schools.

He also pointed to another factor highlighted by PISA, namely regional inequality, and asked the Minister whether this would not be exacerbated by the devolution of powers to local authorities.

The Secretary of State for Education, António Leite, responded to Joana Mortagua, saying that there have always been teachers who are appointed without professionalism. “The only difference we have made is allowing post-Bologna graduates to be employed without professional training.” In this case, “no more than 15% of those appointed” applied.

Carla Castro, from the Liberal Initiative, confirmed that Portugal is one of 58 countries in it Proportion of students in schools whose principals report that learning is hindered by a lack of teaching staff. “I believe that educational policy in Portugal has not been promoting learning and social mobility as much as I would like and as much as it could,” Dantesque declared, summing it all up in a final sentence. “We repeat that this requirement is fundamental for the individual and society and especially for those who come from more disadvantaged backgrounds.”