Portugal has once again recorded a worsening of its results in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), with declines of 12 points in Mathematics and 15 points in Reading, according to the most recent data released by the OECD. These results represent a significant setback for the country in the international context.
The article argues that one of the fundamental causes for this performance lies in the shortage of teachers in Portuguese schools. A concrete example is mentioned of a class that went months without a Mathematics teacher, a situation that, according to the text, is not exceptional but rather a reality that repeats itself in thousands of classrooms across the country.
The piece classifies this shortage of teachers as a "routine" in the Portuguese education system, contrasting this practical reality with the statistical results presented. The author presents the situation in schools as the most honest explanation for the deterioration observed in international assessments.
This is an opinion analysis that seeks to connect the abstract PISA data to the daily life of schools, arguing that the human resources crisis in education is directly visible in classrooms and constitutes a determining factor in the decline of Portuguese students' performance.
