The president of the National Agency for Scientific and Technological Culture, Rosalía Vargas, announced in Bragança that a national program will be launched next school year “to improve literacy in mathematics and empower teachers, schools, associations and society”. This came on the sidelines of the 100th edition of the Café da Ciência at the Centro de Ciência Viva local center, held in Casa da Seda, last Friday.
The project will include all the country's Life Science Centers and will benefit from a network of more than 900 Life Science Clubs in schools. “It's good to feed them with projects so that young people feel motivated and want to do things,” said Rosalía Vargas, who wants to do with mathematics what she has already done with science. Portugal has improved its indicators and is in first place in Europe. “The entire network of Life Science Centers will host a project linked to mathematics, which will start next school year. The results in mathematics are not good and have gotten worse,” he added.
According to the president of Ciência Viva across Europe, the Portuguese are the ones who trust science the most and want to learn about science and technology the most, as well as gain knowledge through scientists. “We are the second country in Europe that visits museums and science centers the most. In all indicators, we are above the European average,” he said.