Portuguese students recorded their worst-ever performance in the Reading section of the international PISA programme, SAPO reports.

The overall results have regressed to levels recorded in 2006 and represent more than a year of lost learning, with the decline also showing in Mathematics and Science.

The Minister of Education, Fernando Alexandre, said the decline in learning among Portuguese students is partly due to the impact of social media, but also due to the devaluation of external assessment by previous governments.

Reasons for decline

When called to parliament to comment on the most recent results of PISA – the Programme for International Student Assessment, Fernando Alexandre explained that “the learning loss did not happen by chance”.

Fernando Alexandre identified access to social networks and the use of smartphones as among the main factors negatively affecting children’s ability to concentrate, which in turn affects their reading ability and, consequently, their overall school career.

“There are common factors that help explain this very negative trajectory in almost all countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), but each country can and should take measures to counteract it,” he noted.

Smartphone restrictions

Stressing that the impact of social networks is “increasingly evident,” Fernando Alexandre added that, for this particular reason, his ministry did not need to wait for the PISA results to regulate the use of smartphones in schools, having issued a recommendation in 2024, with the subsequent ban set to be extended to 9th grade from January.

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