Portugal stands out negatively from other member states in the areas of education and knowledge, showing statistics that concluded that half of the employees (54.6 percent) did not attend secondary or higher education (EU 16.6 percent), according to figures collated by Pordata, an offshoot of the private Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation that describes itself as ‘The Database of Contemporary Portugal’.
The figures also show that getting on for half of all people in employment in Portugal, at 43.3 percent, did not attend school after ninth grade (the EU average is 16.7 percent).
Poland is at the opposite end, with only 1 percent of employees having failed to graduate from secondary education, and Lithuania with 3.5 percent.
“Education is an area in which we have evolved, but we are not there yet,” Valente Rosa told Lusa News Agency. “There is still a long way to go.”
Valente Rosa chose the infant mortality indicator as positive figures: in 1961, Portugal had the highest rate (89 per 1,000) and in 2017 presented 3.2 deaths in infants under the age of one for every 1,000 births, an average below the EU (3.6 per thousand).
Valente Rosa stressed that the level of infant mortality is an indicator of development and living conditions, adding that not only medical advances were made, but also social.
Pordata is a compilation of statistical data from Eurostat, “a panoramic and simple view of Portugal’s reality compared to other countries in Europe”, Valente Rosa said.
Pordata’s sixth ‘Portrait of Portugal in Europe’ is being presented on Tuesday in Brussels, on the same day that the foundation receives the European Citizens’ Prize of the European parliament.
Only members of the parliament have the right to submit nominations for the prize - one per member each year. Prizes - dozens of them each year, across the EU, are awarded for exceptional achievements in activities or actions by citizens, groups, associations or organisations having displayed an outstanding commitment to promoting better mutual understanding and closer integration between citizens of the member states; or to facilitating cross-border or transnational cooperation within the EU.