Education Policy Outlook 2018

Portugal

Context

Portugal scored higher than the OECD average in science in PISA 2015, with a mean score of 501 points, compared to the OECD average of 493 points. Performance in science has improved substantially across PISA cycles, with an average score change of 7.6 score points, and performance in reading and mathematics has also increased. Socio-economic status had a higher-than-average impact on science performance in PISA 2015, explaining 14.9% of the variance in performance (OECD average: 12.9%). The impact of ESCS on performance in science has not changed since 2006. Gender differences in science performance were higher than the OECD average in Portugal, with a difference between boys and girls of 10 points, compared to the average difference across the OECD of 4 points. Immigrant students make up 7.3% of the student population of 15-year-olds in Portugal, a lower proportion than the OECD average of 12.5%. Performance differences between immigrant and non-immigrant students are lower than the OECD average. Immigrants scored on average 16 score points lower than non-immigrants in science in PISA 2015, compared to the OECD average of 31 score points.

Children can begin pre-primary education (Educação pré-escolar) between age 3 and age 5, and around 80% of children typically enrol at age 3. Pre-primary education lasts three years and follows the national Curriculum Guidelines for Pre-school Education. Compulsory education begins at age 6 and ends at age 18 or upon completion of upper secondary education, longer than the typical duration across the OECD. Students are first tracked into different educational pathways typically at age 15, later than the OECD average of age 14. Upper secondary education lasts three years and offers a range of programmes, including science-humanities courses, technological courses, specialist artistic courses and a large choice of dual-certification vocational courses.

VET in upper secondary education is available for those who have completed at least nine years of schooling or equivalent training. VET programmes in upper secondary education play an important role in Portugal and are primarily school-based (non-dual) programmes offered in comprehensive public schools or specialised professional schools. The Vocational Training Centre network, governed by a national agency responsible for employment policies, provides apprenticeship programmes (with both theoretical and practical training) to assist young people under age 24 to find employment or continue their education. Transition pathways from VET programmes to tertiary education are available, although entrance into academic programmes is subject to the same requirements as for those enrolled in general programmes.

The proportion of the population aged 25-64 in Portugal with lower secondary education as the highest level of attainment is higher than the OECD average, with an attainment rate of 20.4% in 2016, compared to the OECD average of 14.3%. NEET rates (the proportion of those aged 18-24 that are not employed or in further education or training) are higher than the OECD average, at 18.2%, compared to the OECD average of 15.3%. The share of the population aged 25-34 with a tertiary-level qualification is relatively low, at 35% in 2016, compared to the OECD average of 43.1%. Employment rates for 25-34 year-olds with tertiary education are similar to the OECD average. In 2016, 82.3% were employed, while the OECD average rate was 82.9%.

Figure 7.20. Selected indicators compared with the average: Portugal

Note: For each indicator, the absolute performance is standardised (normalised) using a normative score ranging from 0 to 220, where 100 was set at the average, taking into account all OECD countries with available data in each case.

Sources: OECD (2016), PISA 2015 Results (Volume I): Excellence and Equity in Education, PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris, http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264266490-en; OECD (2016), Skills Matter: Further Results from the Survey of Adult Skills, OECD Publishing, Paris, http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264258051-en; OECD (2017), Education at a Glance 2017: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/eag-2017-en.

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Evolution of key education policy priorities

Table 7.20. Evolution of key education policy priorities, Portugal (2008-17)

Identified by	Equity and quality	Preparing students for the future
Selected OECD country-based work, 2008-171	OECD findings show that frequent grade repetition harms learning outcomes in Portugal and exacerbates inequalities. In Portugal, 31% of students had repeated a grade at least once by the age of 15 in 2015, compared to the OECD average of 12%. At the same time, more than 50% of socio-economically disadvantaged 15-year-olds reported having repeated a grade at least once, compared to the OECD average of 20%. Grade repetition is a strong predictor for early school dropout in Portugal. [2017]	According to OECD evidence, lower qualification levels remain a challenge, including for young adults, where the share of those who have completed upper secondary was the third-lowest in the OECD in 2015. Private returns to tertiary education are high, but in 2015 only 33% of young adults held a tertiary degree, compared to the OECD average of 42% (although this had risen to 35% by 2016, compared to the OECD average of 43%). Low levels of skills are an obstacle to higher productivity, and low skills also affect the well-being of Portuguese citizens and hinder reduction of income inequality, as higher skills are often a prerequisite for higher job quality and earnings opportunities. [2017]
Evolution of responses to EPO Surveys, 2013 and 2016‑17	Portugal reported that ensuring the completion of compulsory education, increasing the attainment rates in upper secondary and tertiary education, and establishing an overall high-quality, inclusive education system remain policy priorities. [2013; 2016-17]	In the 2016-17 EPO Survey, Portugal reported new measures on two challenges which had been ongoing for several years: 1) the extension of compulsory schooling, involving different educational offers and paths at the upper secondary level, which brings about challenges such as defining the curriculum, key skills and the transitions between education stages; and 2) reskilling initiatives aiming to combat the high rate of youth unemployment. [2016-17]

1. See Annex A, Table A A.3 for the list of OECD publications consulted for this snapshot.

Selected education policy responses

Portugal has introduced a comprehensive national strategy with a focus on combating school failure and grade repetition, the National Programme to Promote Educational Success (Plano Nacional de Promoção do Sucesso Escolar, PNPSE, 2016). The Plan takes a preventive approach, promoting academic success and the improvement of learning, particularly in the early years of schooling. It supports schools to develop improvement plans, based on the principle that educational communities best understand their contexts, difficulties and capabilities and are better prepared to design plans for strategic action. The Plan also aims to examine individual students’ competences more comprehensively across a range of disciplines, including the introduction of a basic student profile, and to support students who have already repeated grades through additional tutoring. School autonomy is also reinforced, especially on pedagogic issues, through the Curriculum Flexibility and Autonomy programme.

• Progress or impact: The coverage of the PNPSE is high, with 663 schools developing a strategic plan around the framework for their schools. The PNPSE, combined with the schools that are already participating in similar activities through the Third Generation of the Education Territories of Priority Intervention Programme (TEIP3), now covers almost 99% of Portugal’s 811 schools. According to a recent European Commission report, the success of the plan in raising performance will depend on capacity to provide technical support and ensure regular monitoring of actions and overall coherence of the different projects (EC, 2017h). In addition, the Curriculum Flexibility and Autonomy programme is also currently active in 235 schools.

Portugal’s National Strategy for the Integration of Roma Communities (Estratégia Nacional para a Integração das Comunidades Ciganas, ENICC, 2013-20) aims to ensure access of children from Roma communities to pre-primary education, as well as to increase their completion of compulsory education and access to tertiary education. In 2013, the Ministry of Education created a database of students from itinerant families to monitor school attendance and help ensure completion of compulsory education. The strategy has been implemented following collaboration between the High Commissioner for Migration (Alto Comissariado para as Migrações, ACM), the Ministry of Education, Civil Society organisations, Roma communities and experts. An Advisory Group for Roma Communities was created to monitor this Strategy.

• Progress or impact: As ENICC national co-ordinator, the ACM produced a report to evaluate implementation of this plan in 2013-14. The strategy’s actions revolve around five axes. The report found that, during the period analysed, the overall execution rate of actions associated with ENICC was 81%, including 59% for transversal initiatives, 23% for education, 10% for employment and training, 6% for housing and less than 1% for the health axis. The report identified budgetary and legal issues, including concerns about the collection of specific information on Roma communities and the need to involve a wide range of public and private actors in order to achieve the various priorities in each axis. This led the ACM to create the "FAPE - ENICC Support Fund" which will, through a line of project financing, highlight the priorities set out in the plan. The first year of implementation of the FAPE in 2015 aimed to improve the success of some of the priorities in 2013-14 (High Commissioner for Migration and Government of Portugal, 2014).

Portugal has developed one of the most prominent and stable educational policies covering territorial intervention among OECD countries. Originally designed in 1996, with further editions in 2006 and 2012, the Third generation of the Education Territories of Priority Intervention Programme (TEIP3, 2012) aims to promote educational success and reduce early school leaving rates within geographical areas in the country with higher-than-average socially disadvantaged populations. While its main principles, goals and methodologies have remained the same since the first edition, the scope of the recent generation of the policy has expanded slightly. It has a greater emphasis on preventing early leaving and improving learning quality, which is deeply connected to the change of the teaching and learning processes. Moreover, since the 2015-16 school year, schools have been asked to design and implement multi-annual improvement plans to strengthen the ability of schools to develop strategic and sustainable actions within the scope of three school years.

• Progress or impact: Between 2012 and 2016, the percentage of Portuguese school clusters (schools grouped under centralised leadership) covered by TEIP increased from 1% to 17% overall, or 137 school clusters, including approximately 16% of students from primary to secondary level. School clusters evaluate progress annually through a formative first semester report and a final report. Cluster reports feed into the programme’s evaluation of results at the national level (EC School Education Gateway, 2017). A recent synthesis of results suggests that dropout has reduced and results have improved in TEIP schools, but gaps remain between TEIP and non-TEIP schools (Dias, 2014). A fourth generation of the programme, currently in preparation, will be informed by analysis from the OECD School Resources Review project.

The Qualifica Programme (2016) builds upon previous efforts from Portugal in the area of adult education. It represents an increased focus on improving the education and skills of adults following a period of reduced resources for investment between 2011 and 2015. Qualifica Centres aim to provide more effective and broader response to adults’ qualification needs by: 1) increasing the number of education centres to improve national coverage; 2) introducing a digital platform (Passport Qualifica), which records the academic achievements of adult and also recognises prior work-related or non-formal learning; and 3) aligning the qualifications to ECVET. The Qualifica network replaces the Centres for Qualification and Vocational Education (Centros para a Qualificação e o Ensino Profissional, 2012-14) which had replaced the previous network of New Opportunities Centres (Centros Novas Oportunidades, 2005). With the Qualifica Centres now implemented as the specialised structures for adult education and training, the key objective of the enhanced programme is to establish upper secondary education as the minimum threshold of attainment.

• Progress or impact: Investment on adult education from 2011 to 2015 declined compared to previous levels, and opportunities for adults had decreased, but the launch of the Qualifica Programme in late 2016 has reversed this situation. In 2017, the number of Qualifica Centres increased to a total of 303, with 40 new centres established to achieve national coverage. In 2017, 125 893 adults participated, a 42% increase over 2016. Compared to 2015, an increase was achieved in the number of adults in training (88%), recognition of prior learning (125%) and those who had passed the final stage in training and received certification (282%).

Portugal has introduced a number of reforms to the VET offering at secondary level. The reform of the VET upper secondary syllabus (2013) aimed to improve transitions between VET, general education and tertiary education (OECD, 2014b). In 2014, Portugal also established the legal framework for a model of Vocational Business Reference Schools (Escolas de Referência do Ensino Profissional), which aim to focus on priority sectors of the economy and contain a strong technical element (OECD, 2017f). At primary and lower secondary level, the pilot Specific Vocational Programmes initiative (2012) was discontinued, due to identified risks of causing early segregation and low-skilling. Portugal has also taken steps to improve the flexibility, mobility and quality of its VET programmes, by reorganising VET curricula (2016) to align with the European credit system (ECVET) and developing a quality assurance framework for VET courses (2017) to align with the European Quality Assurance Reference Framework for VET (EQAVET).

• Progress or impact: The reform of the VET upper secondary syllabus, allows students to get a more work-based education by participating in vocational programmes. This has been achieved by increasing co-operation with the private sector (EC, 2015c). The offer of programmes has been expanded significantly and now encompasses a wide range of higher-skilled occupations, such as electronics and automation, information and communication technologies, and renewable energies. The ongoing VET development has changed the traditional bias in Portugal towards general programmes (OECD, 2017f). In 2015, 45% of upper secondary students in Portugal were enrolled in vocational programmes, close to the OECD average of 46% (OECD, 2017d). The VET quality-assurance system was in the process of being implemented, starting in 2017. It is expected that from 2017/18 onwards, school networks will incorporate the quality-assurance status of dual vocational courses as part of the criteria for selecting course offers.

Additional education policies of potential interest to other countries

• Portugal is rolling out universal free pre-primary education for 3-5 year-olds, aiming for full implementation by 2019. As of 2018, 3-year-olds can participate in preschool education on a voluntary basis, while coverage has already been extended to all 4-year-olds and 5-year-olds. In addition, the new Curriculum Guidelines for Pre-School Education (Orientações Curriculares para a Educação Pré-escolar, OCEPE), presented to the public in 2016, are the result of the review and update of the guidelines in liaison with the curricular steering documents for the first cycle of basic education. This new version of the OCEPE aims to present an integrated and globalising approach of the different content areas, introducing the learning processes to be developed, with practical examples and suggestions to staff.

• Portugal adopted the Innovative Schools Project (Escolas Inovadoras, 2017) as part of a broad policy approach to reduce grade repetition, prevent school failure at all educational levels and promote student success. The approach also includes: 1) a new framework of competences for the whole education system (Students’ Profile at the End of Compulsory Education, 2017); 2) the National Plan for School Success (2016), which is in place in the majority of public schools and municipalities; 3) specific tutoring to all students who repeat two grades (2016/17); and 4) the Curriculum Autonomy and Flexibility Programme (2017), which is currently in place in 235 schools. The Innovative Schools Project is is oriented towards models of enhanced autonomy and combines the goal of Retention 0 (zero) with flexible management instruments (curriculum, spaces, organisation of classes and school calendar).

• The Passaporte Qualifica (Passport Qualifica, 2016), part of the Qualifica reform in Portugal, is integrated with the National Credit System and aligned with the principles of the European Credits VET (ECVET) framework. It is composed of a digital platform where students’ academic paths and the competences acquired in either work-related or non-formal learning contexts are recorded. This instrument makes it possible to orient adults towards training paths within the framework of lifelong learning that reinforce their employability conditions.

• As part of the recent reforms made to the VET system, Portugal revised the Decree-Law of the National Qualification System to create a National Credit System (Sistema Nacional de Créditos). Adopted in 2016, it allows the reorganisation of VET courses curriculum, based on the ECVET framework. To achieve the mapping, the design of non-dual vocational courses is based on learning outcomes. The new national system aims to promote the permeability of training paths, the return of adults to previously interrupted qualification processes and the capitalisation of training actions for the continuation of new qualification paths. Portugal took into account experiences of other countries, notably the Finnish model, for the implementation of credit systems.

• Portugal developed the National Plan for Youth Guarantee (Plano Nacional do Programa Garantia Jovem, 2013) to help youth under age 25 to find employment, continued education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship within four months of becoming unemployed or leaving the formal education system. This policy was positively evaluated, and it was extended for 2016-10 under the title of Youth Guarantee Strategy (Estratégia Garantia Jovem). This strategy is based on the development of two key resources: the local partners’ network and the Garantia Jovem (GJ) electronic platform. Both are boosted by public campaigns. The main goal is to identify, register and guide young people, especially long-term NEETs, towards education, training, apprenticeship and job opportunities.

More information available at: www.oecd.org/education/policyoutlook.htm.