Prime Minister Luís Montenegro acknowledged on Friday that "in recent years education has lost quality, lost rigor," in a reaction to the PISA results that showed a worsening of Portuguese students' performance. This statement was made at the start of the school year, in Setúbal, where he inaugurated the new Barbosa du Bocage School Center. Montenegro again pointed to the international assessment results as evidence of the loss of quality in education, but highlighted that the measures adopted by the current Government seek to reverse this trajectory.
On the same day that Pedro Passos Coelho warned him that "time is running out" to carry out reforms, Montenegro responded that "no one changes the school, no one changes the municipality and no one changes the country with sadness and with complaints," arguing that the Executive is focused on facing and overcoming the challenges.
Regarding the shortage of teachers, the prime minister highlighted the integration of more than 3,000 teachers in public schools, but admitted that "it is still not enough." In the Setúbal Peninsula, where the retention of teachers has been particularly difficult, more than 600 additional teachers were attracted through measures such as financial incentives and support for travel and housing.
The Government plans the revitalization of another 35 schools in the Setúbal Peninsula in an investment of 170 million euros, part of a one billion euro financing line agreed with the European Investment Bank. In the area of vocational education, 33 of the 402 vocational schools covered by investments are located in the Setúbal Peninsula, in an investment of approximately 40 million euros. Montenegro also advocated for restricting the use of mobile phones in schools until the 9th grade, arguing that technology should be used when it contributes to the school's objectives.
