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The beginning of Portugal's history can be traced back to the twelfth century. The Iberian Peninsula was once a unified region. At the end of the eleventh century, Afonso VI, King of Leon, married his daughter Urraca to Count Raymond of Burgundy. His other daughter, Tareja, who was illegitimate, was married to Henry of Burgundy. As a wedding gift, Count Raymond of Burgundy received the regi…
National education policies, curricula, and specific programs are administered by the Ministry of Education. Principles and rules are established by decretos-leis (legal decrees). The basic educational law, Lei 46/86, dates from 14 October 1986. It has 64 articles (artigos) divided into nine chapters (capítulos). Chapters I and II define general and organizational principles; chapter III de…
The educational system as it was established by the Law 46/86 has a number of divisions: The school year runs from October through July. Schools have double and even triple shifts in some cases (morning, afternoon, and evening). The curricula are formulated by the Ministry of Education. In addition to public schools, there are also private ones, mainly Roman Catholic. There is also indirect educat…
Preprimary Education: The family is in charge of the child's education at an early stage. The role of the family is complemented or supplemented with educação préescolar (preschool education). Preschool education is part of the Departamento de Educação Básica (Department of Basic Education), and is organized into public and private nursery schools. …
Secondary education in Portugal is administered by the Department of Secondary Education. Depending on the student's aims, he/she can pursue Cursos Gerais
(general courses) if he/she wants to continue to higher education, or Cursos Tecnológicos (technological courses) to prepare for the job market. Each of these courses lasts three years and corresponds to the tenth, eleventh,…
Higher education consists of university education and polytechnic education. Both are supervised by the Direcção Geral do Ensino Superior (General Office for Higher Education). Each university has a general assembly, a faculty council, and a pedagogical and scientific council. The head of each university is the reitor (rector), and all rectors are members of the National Board of Edu…
Administration: The Ministry of Education centralizes the educational system in Portugal, although autonomy has been given to the islands of Azores and Madeira. The Ministry has several departments and institutes, including departments for basic education, secondary education, and higher education. There are other departments or directorates for special education; adult education; technological, a…
The Ministry of Education created the GAERI, or Gabinete de Assuntos Europeus e Relaço~es Internacionais (Office for European and International Relations) through the Decree-Law 59/96 to take care of assuntos comunitários (community issues), assuntos bilaterais e multilaterais (bilateral and multilateral issues), and cooperação para o desenvolvimento (developmental coop…
Teachers for nursery schools are educated for three years in escolas de educadores de infância.
The Iberian Peninsula, which includes Portugal and Spain, has always been considered separate from the rest of Europe. Innovations from the rest of Europe were introduced up to a century after they had been instituted in other countries. Two major changes occurred in the twentieth century that helped Portugal catch up with the rest of Europe. The first was the Revolution of 1975, which introduced …
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