According to data released by the National Statistics Institute (INE), with the value of 8.9 percent reached last year, Portugal managed to surpass the European target, which defined an Early Leavers from Education and Training rate of up to 10 percent by 2020.
In mainland Portugal, the value was even lower, at 8.4 percent.

In a statement, the Ministry of Education, which cites the data released by INE, recalls that already in 2019 the country had “evolved very favourably”, from 11.8 percent to 10.6 percent, then an all-time low.

“The results show a constant, firm and extraordinarily remarkable evolution of the country, in what is considered by the European Commission as one of the main indicators of the performance of educational systems”.

The Ministry of Education’s office also states that when this indicator began to be calculated two decades ago, Portugal registered values close to 50 percent, which exceeded the European average by around 30 percent.

“These results are even more remarkable considering that they coincide with a very considerable increase in youth employment in recent years, since it could be a stimulus for the non-continuation of studies of this fringe of the population, and with the pandemic situation experienced last year,” adds the statement.

For the Ministry of Education, the challenge of reducing early school leaving becomes even more important in the current context of the Covid-19 pandemic, thus justifying the possibility that children and young people at risk may have face-to-face classes during the remote learning scheme, which resumed on 8 February.