Portugal

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Country in a nutshell

Source: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/po.html

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Located in southwestern Europe, Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east. The Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira are also part of Portugal.

Education in country

Compulsory education: since 2009 (law no 85/2009 of August 2007) education is compulsory from 6 to 18 years of age and include the following cycles:

Levels	Grades	Age
Ensino básico – 1° e 2° ciclos (Primary education)	1st – 4st (first cycle)	6-10 years old
	5th- 6th (second cycle)	10-12 years old
Ensino básico – 3° ciclo (lower secondary education)	7th – 9th (third cycle)	12-15 years old
Ensino secundario (upper secondary education), including four types of courses: scientific-humanistic, technological, specialist artistic and vocational)	10th- 12th (secondary)	15-18 years old

The raising of compulsory education is a recent reform and is part of a national effort aimed at enhancing the overall level of qualification of the Portuguese population to face the challenges of the knowledge society.

Post- secondary non tertiary education: post-secondary non-tertiary education provides specialized training in different technological areas, allowing for integration in the labour market or the continuation of study at higher level, granting a Specialist Diploma in Technology and a level 4 qualification.

Youth and adult education: youth and adult education offer a second opportunity to individuals who dropped out of school or may wish to do so. The different modes of youth and adult education and training provide for a school certification and/or professional qualification, as well as for the possibility to pursue studies at post-secondary non-tertiary or higher level.

Higher education: Higher education is taught in Universities and Polytechnics (which can be public, private or cooperative) and is aimed at those who successfully completed secondary education or gained a legally equivalent qualification.

Further and Higher education

The higher education system in Portugal is binary, comprising university institutions and polytechnic institutions, which can be public or private. There are more than 150 higher education institutions. The public sector includes 14 universities and a nonintegrated university institution; 15 polytechnics and a number of polytechnic schools integrated in universities; 9 non-integrated nursing schools; 4 university-level military schools; and 5 polytechnic military schools. The private sector includes 34 university level institutions and no less than 66 polytechnics. The private sector also includes a Catholic university. The university and polytechnic subsystems are mainly differentiated by their formative role in research, as is seen, for example, also in Denmark and the Netherlands. The polytechnics are vocationally or professionally oriented and do not carry out fundamental research as the universities do. Only applied research is conducted at the polytechnics.

Source: [[1]] More information [[2]]

Universities in Country

The university system has a strong theoretical basis and is highly research-oriented; Degrees in some fields such as medicine, law, natural sciences, economics, psychology or veterinary are university. Other fields like engineering, management, education, agriculture, sports, or humanities are found both in university and polytechnic systems.Many universities are usually organized by Faculty (Faculdade).

The university system, which is the oldest, has its origins in the 13th century. It is composed of thirteen public universities, one public university institute, a public open university, and several private universities and university institutes.

The oldest university is the University of Coimbra founded in 1290, and the biggest by number of enrolled students is the University of Porto with about 28,000 students. The Catholic University of Portugal, the oldest non-state-run university (concordatary status), was instituted by decree of the Holy See and is recognized by the State of Portugal since 1971.

University education can lead to the following degrees: bacharelato (first degree course, normally 3 years’ duration), licenciatura (normally 4 years’ duration), masters’ degrees and doctorates.

Polytechnics in Country

The non-university system provides a more practical training and is profession-oriented. Nursing, preschool education, accounting technician, or health care technician degrees, are only offered in the polytechnic system. Institute (Instituto) and School (Escola) are also common designations for autonomous units of Portuguese higher learning institutions, and are always used in the polytechnical system, but also in several universities.

The polytechnic system, that began offering higher education in the 1980s after the former industrial and commercial schools were converted into engineering and administration higher education schools (so its origins could be traced back to some earlier vocational education schools of the 19th century). It is composed of fifteen state-run polytechnic institutes, public and private non-integrated polytechnic institutions, and other similar institutions.

Polytechnic education can lead to a bachalerato or a licenciatura.

Colleges in Country

The Portuguese education system offers post-secondary non-tertiary education courses since the creation of the Technological Specialisation Courses [Cursos de Especialização Tecnológica CET]. Technological Specialization Courses are defined as post-secondary non-tertiary education courses aimed at the acquisition of a level 4 qualification, as defined in Council Decision no. 85/368/CEE of July 16. This qualification is obtained through the combination of an upper secondary education, whether general or vocational, with a post-secondary technical training. Technological Specialist Courses may be taught at:

• Public and private educational institutions or independent cooperative institutions, with pedagogical parallelism, that teach secondary level courses;
• Public and private higher education institutions;
• Training centres belonging to the network coordinated by the Institute for Employment and Vocational Training (IEPF), under the direct management of, or co-managed by, the same;
• Technological schools;
• Other training institutions accredited by the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity.

The curriculum of Technological Specialist Courses is structured according to three training components: general and scientific training, technological training and work-based training. The general and scientific training component is aimed at developing suitable attitudes and behaviours in professionals with a high level of professional qualification and adaptability to theworld of work, and improve, where necessary, scientific knowledge underpinning the specific technologies of the training area. The technological training component includes technological fields directed towards the understanding of practical activities and the resolution of problems at work. Lastly, the work-based training component is aimed at applying the acquired knowledge to the practical activities of the corresponding professional profile, and involves performing tasks under proper supervision, using the skills, equipments and materials included in the processes of producing goods or rendering services. It may take on different forms of practical training in real work situations, namely internships. To ensure integration in the employment market and workplace-based training, the training institution enters into agreements, or other forms of partnership, with companies and other employing entities, business and socio-professional associations or other organisations best suited to the specificity of the training area as well as the characteristics of the job market.

Education reform

Schools

The educational priority set by the Government is to raise the level of training and qualification of the Portuguese population, through an integrated policy for valorisation of state schools. Several measures have been implemented, in Portugal, in order to put schools at the centre of educational policy, qualifying them, improving their day-to-day running and organisation and students’ results, as a mean of reducing high levels of school failure and dropouts. Thus, placing the state school at the service of students and their families and reducing inequalities in access to training and knowledge have been the main goals of the Government, implemented through the following objectives:

• To promote educational success, putting schools at the service of student learning;
• Modernising schools, creating better working conditions for teachers and students;
• Inculcating the culture and practice of accountability and assessment in the education system;
• Opening the school to the community, strengthening leadership, promoting the school’s autonomy and improving its running, through greater participation by families and communities in the schools;
• Broadening learning opportunities throughout life.

Of the various measures taken, the following stand out for their relevance and impact:

• Full-time school, with the offer of free and comprehensive English and other curricular enrichment activities for all children of primary schools;
• The diversification of the offer of training to elementary and secondary level with the creation of vocational training courses and education and training courses in state schools, tripling the number of students in vocational courses;
• Enlargement of School Social Support, tripling the number of children covered;
• The physical and technological modernisation of schools and the generalisation of the use of computers and the Internet in educational activities – an objective clearly visible in the supply of schools with 310,000 computers (reducing the number of students per computer from 16 to 5), 9,000 interactive whiteboards, 25,000 projectors;
• The internal and external evaluation of schools, covering more than 700 schools; A new system for assessing teacher performance in schools was launched in 2008. The main goals were (1) to improve educational practice and the quality of teaching and (2) to enhance the socio-professional status of teachers, through the differentiation of merit, with direct relevance to career development.
• The new model of school management and transfer of competences from the MoE to schools and local authorities, ongoing throughout the country. This provided the opportunity to formalize and qualify the participation of local institutions and individuals in the strategic orientation of schools. The position of school director, which aims at strengthening school leadership, was created. The Director is entrusted with the administrative, financial and educational management.
• The extension of compulsory education up to 18 years and the extensive pre-school education free for all 5 year-olds, showing, in a structured way, the government’s efforts to improve the qualification of the Portuguese and the growth of educational equality.

These efforts have led to improved efficiency in the organisation of schools, new leadership, and schools better oriented towards students and their families, more students and better outcomes, less dropout and less school failures.

Combating early school leaving remains however a top priority to which specific effort is devoted. The education reintegration of students at risk of leaving school is the basis of the renewed TEIP (Educational Priority Intervention Areas) Programme, which aims to promote the educational success of students in specific socio-educational contexts. Within the Programme of the XVIII Constitutional Government, the resolution of the council of ministers no. 44/2010, define the guidelines to the re-organisation of the schools network, with three purposes. One of them is to adjust the schools dimensions and conditions to the promotion of school success and to prevent school dropout. A new edition of the Programme for Educational Areas of Priority Intervention (TEIP2) was relaunched and aims to territorialize educational policies according to priority criteria of positive discrimination in particular socio-educational contexts.

With the same purpose, prevent early school leaving and raise the students' results, the Ministry of Education launched the program 'More School Success' (Mais Sucesso Escolar (PMSE)). There are several strategies on the base of this program, namely: (1) training of pedagogical teams to intervene and support specific groups of students; (2) organization of flexible groups of students with specific plans for intervention, recovery and learning developments; (3) establishment of teachers networks involved in the program, in accordance with their specific areas, to promote moments of reflexion and discussion within training contexts.

Special needs education

The Decree-Law no. 3/2008, defines specialized support to be provided in pre-school, primary and secondary education, in order to create proper conditions within the educational process for students with special education needs. A recent evaluation made at the end of 2010 showed that the implementation of those measures improves educational responses and fosters the inclusion in Portuguese schools. Several networks were created in the country in order to support students with special educational needs, namely:

• a network of 25 ICT resource centres http://area.dgidc.min-edu.pt/Webpages_CRTIC/ for special education based in school groups divided by the country, and whose mission is to make the assessment of pupils with Special Educational Needs, in order to determine what support technologies fit better to overcome certain kinds of difficulties. These centres provide support for a wide range of schools clusters of their geographical proximity;
• a network of specialized support units to support inclusion of students with multiple disabilities and congenital deaf-blindness, in schools or schools clusters, in order to centre human and material resources that may offer an educational response of quality to these students;
• a network of structured teaching units to support the inclusion of students with autism spectrum disorders, in school or school groups, in order to centre human and material resources that can offer a educational response quality to these students;
• a network of reference schools for the inclusion of blind students or low vision, in order to centre human and material resources that can offer an educational response quality to these students;
• a network consisting of reference schools for the bilingual education of deaf students, in order to centralize human and material resources that can offer a proper educational response to these students;
• in the scope of early intervention, schools clusters were created and are constituted by schools of reference, in order to assure the articulation with the health centres and social security; empowerment of the technological team how provide services on the scope of early intervention, financed by the social security; and to assure, in the Ministry of Education scope, the delivering of early interventions in childhood services.

Top Initiatives in Education

Mathematics Action Plan: In June 2006, taking into account the assessment made by teachers of mathematics and reflection on the results of the Mathematics 9th grade in 2005, the MoE set out an action plan for mathematics. This plan aims mainly at improving the teaching of mathematics through six actions, namely: 1) to implement the Mathematics Programme: teams for success (consists in supporting specific school projects aimed at improving mathematics results); 2) To promote in-service training in mathematics for all teachers from primary to lower secondary school level (1st to 9th grade); 3) To set new conditions for initial teacher training and access to teaching; 4) To carry out adjustment of the mathematics curriculum and specifications and teacher training;5) To create a database of educational resources for mathematics: 6) Assessing the textbooks of Mathematics for Basic Education.

NATIONAL PROGRAMME FOR THE TEACHING OF PORTUGUESE (PNEP) The National Programme for the Teaching of Portuguese (PNEP) was created in 2006-7, to meet the challenge and the need to improve the teaching of Portuguese in the first cycle of basic education, particularly in reading comprehension and oral and written expression. Within this programme and to promote integration, the MoE has drawn up an action plan to meet the needs of about 80,000 students of other nationalities who attend Portuguese schools. The first step was to establish a new system of equivalences for foreign qualifications: the second measure requires the development of activities of effective support for students who have Portuguese as a second language. Students with Portuguese as a second language will be included in three groups of language proficiency –beginner, intermediate and advanced – depending on the result of a diagnosis, and will follow individualized paths.

EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE – TRAINING TEACHERS PROGRAMME: The purpose of Education in Science, as part of the overall educational experience of all young people, is to prepare them for a full and satisfying life in the world of the twenty-first century. More specifically, the science curriculum should: a) Encourage enthusiasm for and interest in science so that young people feel confident and competent to engage with scientific and technical subject; b) Help young people to acquire a broad general understanding of important ideas and explanatory foundations of science and procedures of scientific inquiry which have the greatest impact on our environment and our culture in general; c) Facilitate the deepening of knowledge when it is necessary either for the personal interest of the students or to motivate them for a professional career The following were also defined as priority areas for teacher training: Mathematics, Portuguese Experimental Science Education, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Special Education and English in the 1st grade.

TECHNOLOGICAL PLAN FOR EDUCATION (PTE) Since 2005 there has been a national strategy to modernise Portuguese schools technologically and the Government has made this one of its main goals. The Plano Tecnológico da Educação (Technological Plan for Education – PTE) intends to place Portugal among the five most advanced European countries in terms of school’s technological modernization (see the section below on ICT initiatives in Education)

References

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