Domingos Fernandes was at the parliamentary Education committee to present the State of Education Report, from day-care centres to adult education.

“Portugal has evolved positively in all parameters”, stated the president of the CNE, recalling the scenario outlined 50 years ago in the first OECD study, which “was a scandal”.

After five decades, there are fewer and fewer people who finish secondary education and more and more who go on to higher education. The leads are residual and academic success has become habitual, according to the report, cited by Domingos Fernandes.

The president of the CNE says there are “less positive aspects”, such as the low completion of adult education programs. “The country needs to make an effort to get adult education out of a situation that is not at all satisfactory. Completion rates for all offers are around 40%”, he lamented.

Foreign students

Another “quite worrying” issue has to do with “the few foreign students” with access to the Portuguese Non-Mother Language (PLNM) subject, he said.

Domingos Fernandes acknowledged that there are “meritorious efforts” by various entities to teach Portuguese, but schools are failing at a time when there are more and more foreign students.

“If they don’t learn Portuguese, it’s very difficult for them to learn what they’re supposed to learn”, he said, adding “It’s not surprising that foreign students are the ones who fail the most”.

Deputies Pedro Alves (PSD), Rosário Gamboa (PS), and Isabel Mendes Lopes (IL) were some of those who expressed concern about the problem of teaching PLNM reported by Domingos Fernandes.

Rosário Gamboa admitted that there are “profound difficulties” in accessing the subject, pointing out that “there are difficulties in the ability of schools to mobilise to ensure this training and in the pedagogical conditions that guarantee effective learning in this field”.