Overview of Education System

Education and cultural development are constitutional rights to all citizens of Portugal as defined by the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic. The Portuguese public education system promotes nondenominational, democratic access to education, ensuring the right to just and effective opportunities to access education and excel in it.5 The Education System Act (signed in 1986) also ensures that the Portuguese Republic cannot plan education and culture initiatives according to any philosophical, political, ideological, religious, or aesthetic directives. The act also grants the right to establish private or cooperative schools. Education is aimed at promoting the development of democratic and pluralist citizens who are respectful of others and their ideas, open to dialogue and the free exchange of opinions, and capable of critically evaluating their social environment in order to contribute toward its progressive transformation.6

In Portugal, the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Higher Education and the Ministry of Labor, Solidarity, and Social Security, is responsible for the definition, coordination, implementation, and evaluation of the national policies for basic and secondary education, higher education, and professional qualification and training.7

The Portuguese education system is organized into three main levels: preschool education, basic and secondary education, and higher education.8,9,10,11 Preschool education covers children from age 3 up to age 6, which is the age of entry for basic and secondary education. The preschool network is composed of public and private, cooperative institutions that are either for or not for profit.12 The objectives at the preprimary education level (UNESCO’s ISCED Level 0)13 are to promote students’ personal and social development; integrate students into diverse social groups; enhance students’ global development, and in turn their curiosity and critical thinking; and identify areas where students can improve and encourage their families to participate in the educative process. In 2014, the preschool network served 265,414 students (88 percent of Portuguese children within this age group).14,15

Basic and secondary education is compulsory for children ages 6 to 18, or until the completion of secondary education. Basic education aims to deliver a general education for all children, providing the fundamental knowledge and skills required to pursue postsecondary studies and offering the following tracks: General Basic Education, Specialized Arts Education, Vocational Education, and Recurrent Education. Spanning nine years of schooling, the basic education level is composed of three sequentially ordered cycles of study, each of which must be completed in order to progress to the next cycle. During the first cycle, which corresponds to Grades 1 to 4, generalist instructors are responsible for teaching all subject areas except English as a Foreign Language, which can be taught by specialized instructors. Each teacher’s curriculum is based on reference curricula from the Ministry of Education that focus on the domains of Portuguese Language, Mathematics, Natural and Social Environment, Artistic and Motor Expressions, and English as a Foreign Language (for Grades 3 and 4, starting from the 2015–2016 school year).16

The second cycle of basic education corresponds to Grades 5 to 6 and focuses on the following multidisciplinary areas of study: Language and Social Studies (including Portuguese and foreign languages, history, and geography of Portugal), Mathematics and Sciences, Physical Education, and Arts and Technology. Other general curriculum areas during this cycle include school and local area projects, tutored studies, and education for citizenship.17 In 2014, 928,541 students were enrolled in the first and second cycles (98 percent of Portuguese children within this age group).18,19

The third cycle, which corresponds to Grades 7 to 9, builds on the curricula of the second cycle and includes a second foreign language requirement. The curricula at this level are taught by specialized instructors. The first and second cycles of Portuguese basic education correspond to primary education (ISCED Level 1), and the third cycle corresponds to lower secondary education (ISCED Level 2). Secondary education corresponds to Grades 10 to 12, or upper secondary education (ISCED Level 3).

Secondary education is organized into various training tracks that are aimed at continuing on to postsecondary studies or at entering the workforce.20 The Scientific-Humanistic track prepares students for postsecondary education in the sciences, technologies, humanities, and arts. Specialized Arts tracks prepare students to enter the workforce after completing secondary education with a certification in the performing arts, or to pursue postsecondary education in the performing arts. Vocational, Educational, and Professional tracks prepare students to enter the workforce while also allowing for the pursuit of postsecondary education, as students have the ability to transfer among the tracks. The Recurrent Education track, which is offered to adults and adolescents who have not concluded the basic or secondary education levels by the usual age, aims to reduce dropout rates and barriers to academic success while encouraging lifelong learning.21

The higher education level is offered at public, private, and cooperative universities and at polytechnic institutes. This level is composed of three cycles of studies within the sciences, humanities, arts, and technologies and leads to three certifications: Licenciatura, or bachelor’s (first cycle, equivalent to ISCED Level 6); master’s (second cycle, ISCED Level 7); and doctoral (third cycle, ISCED Level 8).22 The Portuguese higher education system follows the principles set forth in the Bologna Accords with the objective of creating a common European higher education system with courses that may be transferred among institutions per the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) and the Europass Diploma Supplement. In 2014, 362,200 students were enrolled at the higher education level (about 50 percent of the 18 to 25 age group).23