Village school that was at risk of closing leads fourth year exams

Na village school, which was at risk of closing due to lack of children, studied students who obtained one of the best results in the national tests of the 4th year to portuguese, mathematics and english in 2025.

The Covão do Coelho Basic School in Alcanena was at risk of not opening doors in September 2019. At the time, there was a chance that a “special permit” would be needed to keep the rural school open, if there were fewer than 20 subscribers.

Now, their students are among those who achieved the best results in the 4th grade Learning Monitoring (ModA) tests, carried out in 2025, according to an analysis by Lusa to more than 3,600 primary schools.

All the children of that school reached the “Advanced” level in the tests, which is the highest level of the various levels of competence, ranging from the “Initial”, through the “Basic” and “Proficient” to the “Advanced”.

Ministry data does not discriminate the number of students in each school.

The “Advanced” level students manage to solve more complex tasks than those required for the expected level and, in that school of the village of Serra de Aire, everyone managed to do so.

But this is not the only public school in the top of the ranking that commands schools for the best results in the ModA tests.

In Portuguese tests, for example, there are many public schools among the best and several are outside the major urban centers, according to an analysis by Lusa of the data provided by the Ministry of Education.

Several are far from the large cities, such as the primary school near the Spanish border, the Basic School of Village of Santo António, in Sabugal, or the Basic School of Póvoa de Rio de Moinhos, in Castelo Branco, or the Basic School of Viso, in Montemor-o-Velho.

Looking at the results of Mathematics, the rural school of Alcanena appears in 2nd place, surpassed only by the School Place4All, which also appears with good results in the three tests.

Among the 20 best classified mathematics, the schools already appear more often, being the public schools mostly located in villages or less populous locations, such as Unhais da Serra, Rebordãos or Village of Santo António.

The best results of Mathematics show a very dispersed geography, with cases in the rural interior of Beira Interior, Trás-os-Montes or in Alentejo, which manage to rival the schools usually highlighted in the rankings.

In the ModA, which replaced the tests, the schools stand out in English: Alcanena school remains the best ranked school, but the following 20 on the list are all private and many in the Lisbon area.

In this group, there are schools with bilingual education or that privilege early contact with English, such as St. Julian’s School or Queen Elisabeth’s School.

A recent study published by the Ministry of Education highlighted the strong link between text comprehension and good results to other disciplines, such as Mathematics and History and Geography and reinforced the association between socioeconomic context and school outcomes.