A passion for education. And for maths – who’s fallen in love with it?

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For years, we have heard successive governments and political leaders argue, with great conviction, for the need to place “Passion for Education” at the centre of the national strategy. The expression was appealing. Inspiring. Almost poetic.

The problem is that passion, when not accompanied by high standards, can easily turn into a culture of making things easier.

The results of the national Year 9 examinations, released this week, should make us stop and think. More than half of the pupils received a failing grade in Mathematics, and the national average was 49%. We are not looking at a statistical accident. We are looking at the accumulated result of many years of educational choices that prioritised reducing difficulty, lowering standards, a culture of passing, and the idea that protecting pupils often meant expecting less from them.

The problem is that mathematics cannot be persuaded by political speeches.

Either we know.

Or we don't.

A few days ago, I experienced an episode that was as simple as it was revealing.

At a café, the bill came to €3.85. My wife handed over a €5 note. The young woman behind the counter looked at the screen, hesitated for a few seconds and picked up a calculator to work out how much change she should give.

I do not judge her.

I judge the system that put her in that position.

If a basic arithmetic operation requires a calculator, what capacity will we have to solve complex problems? To analyse information? To understand statistics? To innovate? To create businesses? To develop technology? To make decisions?

Mathematics has never been just a subject.

It is a way of organising thought.

It teaches logic, abstraction, problem decomposition, critical analysis and the ability to build solutions. These are precisely the kinds of skills that a knowledge-based economy needs most.

When we fail at mathematics, we are usually not simply failing at numbers.

We are failing in our ability to think.

And that has profound consequences for the country.

We live in an age in which we constantly talk about Artificial Intelligence, innovation, productivity, semiconductors, cybersecurity and digital transformation. We want technology companies, research centres and a knowledge economy.

But who will build all of this?

A population that reaches the end of basic education with serious difficulties in mathematical reasoning will hardly go on to develop advanced skills in engineering, data science, economics, programming or research.

We can distribute thousands of computers.

We can digitise schools.

We can implement Artificial Intelligence in every classroom.

But no technology can replace a cognitive ability that was never developed in the first place.

The greatest risk is not creating an underqualified population.

It is creating a highly qualified population with little knowledge.

People capable of accumulating certificates, but with increasing difficulty in establishing connections between ideas, critically analysing problems or constructing complex lines of reasoning.

Ultimately, a society in which there is administrative literacy… but cognitive illiteracy.

Clearly, demanding more does not mean returning to authoritarian models of education or turning schools into examination factories.

But neither can we continue to confuse inclusion with lowering standards.

The countries that innovate most do not do so because they have made learning easier.

They do so because they have managed to combine high standards, support and a culture of merit.

Portugal needs exactly that combination.

Perhaps it is time to stop measuring the success of education solely by the number of diplomas awarded and start measuring it again by our young people's ability to think, solve problems and create value.

Because a country does not grow through passion for education alone.

It grows when that passion is accompanied by knowledge, high standards and the courage to recognise that, for too long, we have confused academic success with educational success.

And the Mathematics figures show us, cruelly, that these are two very different things.

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Rui Ribeiro
Professor and Information Systems Manager. Executive Director, LES Lusófona Executive School

Source: Observador newspaper