Portuguese from all walks of life are mystified – and a little saddened – by German chancellor Angela Merkel’s “education gaff” this week. The self-styled Iron Lady was quoted by Bloomberg as saying countries like Spain and Portugal “had too many graduates”. Whether she was trying to make a joke – even allude to the dubious university degrees claimed by certain politicians – is unclear.
What Merkel did seem to be saying, however, was that Portugal “should not aspire to the same level of development and sustainability of other powers” – and this has made educationalists sad, not to mention disillusioned.
Lisbon university rector António Cruz Serra told Expresso that he had “only one thing to say: “Europe has an excess of leaders that fall short of the European ideal”.
Calling Merkel’s statement “lamentable”, Serra was backed by numerous others in the field of education.
Considering Portugal’s standard of education was recently ranked below that of Mongolia (see our news report: https://www.portugalresident.com/portugal%E2%80%99s-standard-of-education-dropped-to-47th-place) it is little wonder that Merkel’s comments have caused controversy.
Eurostat confirms that while the average percentage for graduates within the EU is 25.3%, Portugal’s level remains very much lower (17.6%).
Merkel was trying to stress the importance of young people taking vocational courses, but it will be difficult for people to forget her words. As firey president of Porto polytechnic Rosário Gamboa told Expresso, the German leader seemed to be suggesting the perpetuation of “a t-shirt economy of unskilled labour. An economy based on survival and not on knowledge”.
