The measure has contributed to reducing school dropout to 5.9%, but it has been accompanied by other actions such as making curricula more flexible or reducing ratios
Few European countries have been as successful in reducing the dropout rate as Portugal in recent decades. If in 2001 that figure reached 44.3%in 2021 it will reduced to 5.9%according to data from the statistical portal data. A reduction that both the Government and those responsible for education attribute to many causes, including the expansion of the compulsory schooling until 18 years.
It was in 2009 when the government of the then socialist prime minister, Jose Socratesmodified the Law of the Bases of the Educational System, which until then fixed the schooling compulsory up to 15 years. That year, the school dropout rate in Portugal was close to 31%although the downward trend of this indicator was already being recorded in previous years.
the sociologist Luis Hood, responsible for the study that promoted the reform of the law, explains that the country made some previous decisions that facilitated this change. “The panorama changed because the market demanded more qualified workers and because the educational offer began to bet on professional education”. Secondary schools included professional courses and the dropout rate reduction.
Hood assures that Portugal increased the compulsory school age because, despite the fact that it was still far from the European goal of 10%, it was managing to reduce faster and faster the school failure rate. “Surely increasing the age to 18 years gave a great boost to the reduction of school dropouts.” But after this measure came others, such as the flexibility of the curriculathe improvement of evaluation processes and the reduction of students per classroom. Reasons that the Government of António Costa has given to justify the current dropout rate, which is below the European average.
The president of the National Association of Directors of Public School Groups (ANDAEP), Filinto Lima, share that opinion. “The increase in compulsory schooling up to the age of 18 it was a very important stepbut other factors such as the curricular autonomy of schools have also contributed to reducing these indicators”, says the professor, who points out that these changes to the laws have had a significant impact in a short time.
The president of ANDAEP attributes part of the success to teachers work. “We have excellent teachers in Portugal, highly trained and experienced. Not only do they have basic training, but they continue with that training throughout their careers,” says Lima. The teachers’ struggles -who are in full swing with the Government for an improvement in their working conditions- in recent years, also have been decisive to achieve these objectives.
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Despite the fact that the situation in each country is different in terms of education, experts consider that the increase in the age of compulsory schooling is a measure that Can work in the same way in other states of the European Union. “There is no reason why, throughout Europe, compulsory schooling is not until the age of 18 or until the end of secondary school for those who do so at 17,” says Hood.
However, the sociologist defends a more ambitious measure, which consists of increase prior training at the entrance to the university. “Training in basic skills that traditional education does not provide or supplementary technological specialization, with impact on higher educationcould be good ways to train all young Europeans,” he says.