NON-STATE ACTORS IN EDUCATION
2.2 Non-state education provision
3.1 Regulations by distinct levels of education
- Early childhood care and education (Entry/Establishment ○ Financial operation ○ Quality of teaching and learning ○ Equitable access ○ Quality assurance, monitoring and accountability)
- Primary and secondary education (Entry/Establishment ○ Financial operation ○ Quality of teaching and learning ○ Equitable access ○ Quality assurance, monitoring and accountability)
- Tertiary education (Entry/Establishment ○ Financial operation ○ Quality of teaching and learning ○ Equitable access ○ Quality assurance, monitoring and accountability)
3.3 Supplementary private tutoring
The 1986 Basic Law of the Educational System (as amended in 2009) governs Portugal’s education system from preschool to higher education and dictates the right for individuals or legal persons to establish and operate a private and/or a cooperative school. According to the Statute of private and cooperative education of non-higher education (Decree-Law No. 152/2013) a ‘private and cooperative educational institution’ is an institution created by a natural or legal person, for-profit or not, in which collective education is provided to more than five students or in which regular education or training activities are developed. In higher education, the legal regime of higher education institutions (Law No. 62/2007) defines a ‘private higher education institution’ as an institution belonging to private entities and cooperatives.
2.1 State education provision
State schools
In Portugal, most schools at primary (four years, beginning at age six), lower secondary education (two years) and upper secondary education (three years) are state schools (80%). They are free and compulsory- Compulsory education covers nine years of basic education from primary education (beginning at age six) to secondary level.
Non-state managed, state schools
No information was found.
Non-state funded, state schools
No information was found.
2.2 Non-state education provision
Independent, non-state schools
Private or cooperative educational institutions are established, managed and financed, at least less than 50%, by non-state actors. These educational institutions enjoy pedagogical freedom to design and incorporate their academic programs with previous state consent.
State-funded (government-aided), non-state schools
No information was found.
Contracted, non-state schools
The State may enact contracts of various kinds with private or cooperative educational institutions in family support, association contracts, sponsorship contracts, or cooperation contracts. According to Decree-Law No. 152/2013 contracts are drafted on an annual or multiannual basis, and funding is based on the number of students and classes in the educational institution. The renewal of contracts takes into account the results obtained by the students. State-aided schools curricula and pedagogical programs are subject to guidelines and restrictions according to the type of contract established between the State and the educational institution. Some institutions may create and incorporate their plans and pedagogical programs, while others, such as in the case of schools benefiting from family support contracts, must follow the authorized study plan set by the Ministry of Education.
To create further public education, Decree-Law No. 152/2013 establishes the possibility to enact contracts with non-state educational institutions, referred to as association contracts. The association contract enables the attendance of private and cooperative schools under the same conditions as the teaching provided in public schools while respecting the specificity of the respective educational project. These types of educational institutions are obliged to accept the enrollment of all students following the same priorities as those established for public schools.
2.3 Other types of schools
Homeschooling
The Statute of Private and Cooperative Education of non-higher education (Decree-Law No. 152/2013), recognizes the freedom to learn and teach, including the right of parents to choose and guide the educational process of their children and defines ‘domestic education’.
Market contracted (Voucher schools)
No information was found.
Unregistered/Unrecognised schools
No information was found.
In Portugal, the Ministry of Education is responsible for defining, coordinating and implementing the national educational policy from pre-school to secondary level. Early childhood care and education governance is divided between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security (MTSS). Higher Education is under the responsibility of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education. In the Autonomous Regions of the Azores and Madeira, the regional governments are responsible for defining national education policy in terms of a regional plan and managing human, material and financial resources, via the respective Regional Secretariats for Education.
3.1 Regulations by distinct levels of education
Early childhood in Portugal is divided into two stages. The first stage covers children from zero to three years and is mostly comprised of family daycare centers or daycare centers provided by private non-profit bodies and private for-profit centers. The second stage, preschool education, includes children ages three to six. In 2018, preschool enrollment was divided between public institutions accounting for 53% of enrolment, government-subsidized 31%, and private enrolment representing16% at a national level.
Registration and approval: According to the Decree-Law 115/2015, for a family daycare to be established, proprietors must apply for authorization and fulfill the minimum requirements, including complying with the hygiene and safety conditions, appropriate housing conditions and spaces, and proper experience or professional qualifications. For more information on pre-school education, see Multi-level regulations.
Licence: No information was found.
Profit-making: See Multi-level regulations.
Taxes and subsidies: According to the Decree-Law No. 152/2013 private and cooperative preschool centers may receive state financial funds based on the per-pupil funding.
Quality of teaching and learning
Curriculum and education standards: No information was found.
Teaching profession: See Multi-level regulations.
Fee-setting: Preschool centres in receipt of financial support through development contracts to support the family must provide reduced tuition fees to the entitled students in accordance with the terms agreed with the State.
Admission selection and processes: See Multi-level regulations.
Policies for vulnerable groups: According to the Decree-Law No. 152/2013, the state provides family support development contracts to support families through the granting of financial support to promote preschool education. The preschool center must disclose the contract regime to provide clarification to parents on the financial support criteria to be awarded.
Quality assurance, monitoring and accountability
Inspection: According to The Framework Law of Preschool Education (Law No 5/97) The Inspectorate-General for Education is responsible for monitoring the pedagogical and technical functioning of preschool institutions. For more information on pre-school education, see Multi-level regulations.
Child assessment: No information was found.
Sanctions: See Multi-level regulations.
Registration and approval: To establish and operate a private or cooperative educational institution, proprietors must apply for an operating authorization from the State. All proprietors, individual or legal persons, must comply with the minimum requirements established in the Statute of Private and Cooperative Education of non-higher education (Decree-Law No. 152/2013). According to Decree-Law No. 152/2013, all non-state providers must demonstrate the existence of appropriate administrative services, pedagogical direction and facilities, appropriate staff qualifications, equipment, and teaching material according to the requirements on the number of students and each institution.
The regimen for the establishments of ecclesiastical formation and culture is provided for in the Concordat between the Holy See and the Portuguese State (Decree-Law No. 152/2013).
Licence: The operating authorization of an educational institution is granted based on compliance with the minimum requirements set by the law. Approval may be provisional or final, a provisional authorization is valid for one year and specifies the conditions and requirements to meet their respective deadlines.
Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH): All educational institutions must comply and ensure the health requirements for a non-state educational institution to be granted an operating licence.
Profit-making: See Multi-level regulations.
Taxes and subsidies: See Multi-level regulations.
Quality of teaching and learning
Curriculum and education standards: The 1986 Basic Law of the Educational System (as amended in 2009) dictates that private and cooperative educational institutions have pedagogical autonomy. According to the Decree-Law No. 152/2013, schools may choose to follow the state curricula or adopt their own plans and programs with previous consent of the state on a case-by-case basis. Schools benefiting from family support contracts must follow the authorized study plan set by the Ministry of Education and in some cases are allowed flexible management of the curriculum, in accordance with the terms established in each contract.
Textbooks and learning materials: No information was found.
Teaching profession: All teachers working in private or cooperative schools must meet the same professional and academic requirements required for teaching the disciplines, or corresponding disciplinary areas, in public schools. They also have the same rights and are subject to the labor legislation. Each year, private and cooperative educational institutions must provide to the Ministry of Education the list of teachers working at the respective educational institution.
Corporal punishment: Corporal punishment is not allowed.
Other safety measures and COVID-19: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Portuguese government closed all educational institutions and continued through virtual learning. In addition, the government provided online resources and platforms with tools, resources, and guidance for online learning, digital teaching, and educational programming broadcast via national television channels, #EstudoEmCasa. Furthermore, the government created and disseminated a campaign on activities and information to keep young people stimulated at home and provided targeted support and interventions for vulnerable children and families through access to meals, providing specific technical support for teachers and schools, implementing methods of inclusive education, supporting families in the transition to online learning and collaborating with other community services.
Fee-setting: Schools benefiting from contracts with the state must follow specific guidelines for each case regarding the collection of fees. Family support contracts are obliged to disclose the contract regime and to establish tuition feed and fees in accordance with the agreed terms, while sponsorship contracts must follow the rules regarding the collection of fees and other amounts in accordance with the Government’s Statutes. For more information, see Multi-level regulations.
Admission selection and processes: See Multi-level regulations.
Policies for vulnerable groups: Decree-Law No. 152/2013 establishes the possibility of creating family support contracts that allow primary and secondary school students not covered by other contracts to attend private or cooperative schools. The financial support to be granted to the students is based on the principle of annual funding per pupil, taking into account the corresponding costs of public schools of equivalent level and granted and the differentiation of funding according to the household's economic condition. Furthermore, socio-educational support granted in the framework of school social action is extended to students from private and cooperative schools under the conditions provided for students in public schools.
Quality assurance, monitoring and accountability
Curriculum and education standards: The 1986 Basic Law of the Educational System (as amended in 2009) dictates that private and cooperative educational institutions have pedagogical autonomy. According to the Decree-Law No. 152/2013, schools may choose to follow the state curricula or adopt their own plans and programs with previous consent of the state on a case-by-case basis. Schools benefiting from family support contracts must follow the authorized study plan set by the Ministry of Education and in some cases are allowed flexible management of the curriculum, in accordance with the terms established in each contract.
Textbooks and learning materials: No information was found.
Teaching profession: All teachers working in private or cooperative schools must meet the same professional and academic requirements required for teaching the disciplines, or corresponding disciplinary areas, in public schools and have the rights and are subject to the labor legislation. Each year private and cooperative educational institutions must provide to the Ministry of Education the list of teachers working at the respective educational institution.
Corporal punishment: Corporal punishment is not allowed.
Other safety measures and COVID-19: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Portuguese government closed all educational institutions and continued through virtual learning. In addition, the government provided online resources and platforms with tools, resources, and guidance for online learning, digital teaching, and educational programming broadcast via national television channels, #EstudoEmCasa. Furthermore, the government created and disseminated a campaign on activities and information to keep young people stimulated at home and provided targeted support and interventions for vulnerable children and families through access to meals, providing specific technical support for teachers and schools, implementing methods of inclusive education, supporting families in the transition to online learning and collaborating with other community services.
In Portugal, most higher education institutions and education are provided by state institutions. The Law No. 62/2007 on the legal regime of higher education institutions, also applies to the Portuguese Catholic University and other higher education institutions established by canonical entities.
Registration and approval: To establish a private institution of higher education all proprietors must be legally organized as a legal entity established as non-profit, foundation, association, cooperative, share company, or public limited company. All proprietors must apply for authorization and recognition of the public interest and comply with the requirements established in Law No. 62/2007. Minimum requirements include demonstrating the institution’s financial sustainability, appropriate facilities, and human resources.
Licence: No information was found.
Profit-making: According to the Law No. 62/2007 higher education institutions are allowed to be organized as for-profit institutions. However, when an institution is organized as a for-profit enterprise it will not be recognized as of public interest. For more information, see Multi-level regulations.
Taxes and subsidies: When a private higher education institution is granted recognition of public interest, it enjoys the rights and advantages of legal persons of public utility.
Quality of teaching and learning
Curriculum and education standards: According to the Law No. 62/2007 on the legal regime of higher education institutions, private higher education institutions enjoy pedagogical, scientific and cultural autonomy. The competence to create cycles of studies aimed at conferring academic degrees in private higher education institutions is the institution, after hearing the rector, president or director, the scientific or technical-scientific council and the pedagogical council. For the cycles of study to enter into operation, it requires accreditation by the Agency for Evaluation and Accreditation for Quality Assurance of Higher Education and subsequent registration with the Ministry of Supervision.
Teaching profession: The teaching staff of private higher education institutions must have the qualifications and degrees legally required from the exercise of functions of the respective category in public higher education. Higher education institutions must comply with the percentage of faculty staff according to academic level (Doctor, Master, Bachelor) as dictated by law
Fee-setting: Tuition fees and other charges due by students for attending the educational institution are fixed by the institution, after consulting the management bodies of the institutions, and must be known and adequately publicized in all its aspect before the registration of students. (Law No. 62/2007)
Admission selection and processes: Higher education institutions are free to set their admission process.
Quality assurance, monitoring and accountability
Board: The management structure of a private higher education institution must include a Rector or president, director, and teachers and students’ participation. The management structure must be specified in the statutes of the institution.
Reporting requirements: All higher education institutions must consolidate an annual report on their activities that considers achievements, efficiency, self-assessment, external evaluation procedures, and results (Law No. 62/2007).
Inspection: The state is responsible for verifying compliance with the requirements for the establishment and operation. Hence, higher education institutions are subject to inspections by the Ministry of Guardianship. (Law No. 62/2007)
Assessment: No information was found.
Diplomas and degrees: Private higher education institutions that have been granted the recognition of public interest have the power to award academic degrees endowed with official value.
Sanctions: According to Law No. 62/2007 the state is responsible for revoking the recognition of public interest of private higher education institutions. Higher education institutions operating without prior recognition of the public interest are subject to immediate closure of the establishment. Private higher education institutions may also voluntarily close the education institution with ministerial approval, in which case it must include the appropriate measures to protect students' interests.
3.2 Multi-level regulations
This section covers regulations on the establishment, operation, and quality of non-state institutions from pre-primary to secondary education level.
The 1986 Basic Law of the Educational System (as amended in2009) and the Statute of Private and Cooperative Education of non-higher education (Decree-Law No. 152/2013) lays down the legal regime applicable to private and cooperative institutions of non-higher education in Portugal. Ecclesiastical or denominational formation and culture, educational institutions maintained by foreign States that do not adopt the Portuguese education system, private vocational schools or individual and domestic education are under specific regulations.
Profit-making: According to the Statute of Private and Cooperative Education of non-higher education (Decree-Law No. 152/2013, private and cooperative educational institutions may be created for profit or not for -profit educational institutions.
Taxes and subsidies: According to the 1986 Basic Law of the Educational System (as amended in 2009), the state may provide support for private and cooperative educational institutions in the form of fiscal, pedagogical or technical support. According to Decree-Law No. 152/2013, private schools and cooperatives granted with public utility enjoy the benefit and rights inherited in that recognition.
Fee-setting: Private and cooperative schools may charge tuition fees provided for each educational institution's rules of procedure. Students may be entitled to exemption or reduction of tuition fees following the financial support received by schools (Decree-Law No. 152/2013).
Admission selection and processes: Private and cooperative educational institutions have the autonomy to decide the institution's student admission procedures and requirements. In the application for operating authorization, each institution must inform about the rules governing students' registration or admission, including the minimum age for attendance, the attendance standards, and evaluation criteria.
Quality assurance, monitoring and accountability
Board: Non-state schools have the freedom to select and organize their management bodies.
Inspection: All private and cooperative schools are subject to supervision by the Ministry of Education and regularly supervise the Inspectorate of Education and Science (IGEC).( Decree-Law No. 152/2013). Private and cooperative schools which possess a contract with the State are subject to administrative and financial inspection by the competent service of the Ministry of Education to verify compliance with the contractual obligations assumed.
Diplomas and degrees: According to Decree-Law No. 152/2013 private and cooperative educational institutions have to competence to decide on the diplomas and certifications issued by the educational institution.
Sanctions: The closing of a private or cooperative educational institution can be requested by the educational institution or by the state. If the initiative comes from the institution, it must ensure the appropriate protection of interest of the students enrolled in the institution and provide the Ministry of Education with the relevant information and documentation established by law such as registration books and student evaluation records. The State may also request the closure of the educational institution when there is evidence of non-compliance with the requirements for its authorization to operate. (Decree-Law No. 152/2013)
3.3 Supplementary private tutoring
No information was found.
Financial operation and quality
No information was found.
No information was found.
