They hire better-qualified teachers, and more of them, offering higher salaries to lure those with qualifications in difficult subjects such as physics, mathematics and foreign languages, and now have twice as many teachers per pupil as state schools do.

ECONOMIST: Private education

The Popular Party has also put forth a controversial proposal to overhaul the public education system that would emphasize mathematics, sciences and foreign languages over other subjects and require more standardized testing.

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"Just as some people have taken a perverse pride in not understanding mathematics, so we have taken a perverse pride in the fact that we do not speak foreign languages, and we just need to speak louder in English, " he said.

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