Student performance improves but Mathematics and History are a concern

Overall, the results improved in the assessment tests compared to 2019. However, Mathematics and History are areas of concern with more than half of the students, from the 5th and 8th years, respectively, revealing “Not Knowing” or ” Don’t Reply” to most of the article.

The report made by the Institute for Educational Assessment (IAVE) on the national results in the assessment tests, given to 81,000 students in the 2nd year, 93,000 in the 5th and 93,000 in the 8th year, between May 2 and June 19, to various disciplines, was released this Wednesday.

In most areas and domains, they show an improvement compared to 2019, that is, stresses the assessment, they denote a tendency to recover learning penalized during the pandemic with distance learning. However, there are areas and regions of the country where “weaknesses” persist.

The worst performance was registered in the Mathematics test in the 5th year. Despite the “slight” improvement compared to 2019, 78.7% of students expressed “Not Knowing” or “Not Answering” the questions, particularly in the areas of Numbers and Operations (69.7%) and Geometry and Measurement (55.3 %). In this test, the best performance was registered in “Organization and Data Processing”, despite the fact that 48.5% of the students had “Answered with Difficulty”.

In the 8th year History test, most students (70%) also said “Not Knowing” or “Not Answering” the questions. Only 2% were able to respond as expected to the questions about “the start of the Industrial Revolution and the triumph of conservative liberal regimes” and 8% revealed difficulty in the answers. More than 70% also expressed “Not Knowing” the matter related to the “European context from the 12th to the 14th centuries” and “the heritage of the Ancient Mediterranean / Expansion and change in the 15th and 16th centuries / Portugal in the European context of the 17th and 18th centuries” .

In Portuguese, also in the 8th year, despite the improvement compared to 2019, the areas of Grammar and “Literary Education” were those that revealed “greatest weaknesses” with, respectively, 68.9% and 59.3% of students to “reveal difficulty” or “not being able” to answer the questions.

The best results were achieved in the Physical Education tests, in the 2nd and 8th year, and Visual Education and Technological Education, in the 5th year.

In regional terms, schools in the North and Center again show better results. Algarve and Madeira the worst performers.