Public versus private education. Two speeds reaffirmed by the pandemic

Experts point out that the challenges facing public schools are not limited to exam rankings, which have once again been lost to private schools. Private education, however, has more to prove.

The debate has been going on for centuries: which is better, public or private education? It divides parents, teachers and students, with layers of arguments so different from each other that it is always unfinished. But there is certainty among education experts: there is a long distance between one sector and the other. And the kilometers tend to stretch even further between them, since Portugal is struggling with the current covid-19 pandemic. With the closure of schools in March, both public and private schools were forced to enter a marathon whose destination and deadline are still unknown, but among the others there were those who ran longer and, on the other hand, those who ran better.

In the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reports released over the years, Portugal is often referred to as "one of the countries where there is a very close relationship between [students'] results and their social context". That's why there's no surprise to be gleaned when it comes to "the prevalence of the first places for private education in the national exam rankings" in 2019, says António Teodoro, director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Education and Development (CeiED) at Lusófona University.

Source: Diário de Notícias. Read more.