School education

The law regarding the autonomy, administration and management of public pre-school establishments and basic and upper secondary schools was reviewed in 2008. It meets three main goals:

• to encourage families and communities to participate more actively in school leadership strategies thereby ensuring not only the right of the agents, namely the teaching staff, to take part in the educational process, but also enable everyone who has a lawful interest in the activity and in the life of each school a more effective capacity of intervention.
• to strengthen school leadership, so that in each school someone at the top is given the necessary authority to develop the school’s educational project and carry out on-the-spot educational policy measures.
• to strengthen the school’s autonomy, conferring upon the head teacher a greater capacity to react and institute a system of evaluation and accountability.

In 2012, the autonomy, administration and management system of public pre-school establishments and basic and upper secondary schools was changed, in order to gradually consolidate the autonomy and greater organisational and pedagogical flexibility of schools, which is essential to improve the public education system. 

The psychology and guidance services are specialised educational support units that work in conjunction with the schools’ educational communities.

The majority of non-teaching staff are technical assistants and operational assistants within the general civil service system, carrying out administrative duties, educational support and auxiliary activities. Between 2019 and 2022, the transfer of responsibilities to municipal bodies in the field of education was defined, namely the transition of non-teaching staff to municipal staff. Non-teaching staff are also part of the general career of senior staff in the role of psychologist within the psychology and guidance services. This career also includes social workers, speech therapists, socio-cultural animators and mediators, among others.

Higher education

According to the Higher Education Institutions Legal Framework, public higher education institutions enjoy statutory autonomy, approving their own statutes and managing their human resources according to their needs, following the principles of good management, in strict compliance with available funding. According to the law, public HEIs are responsible for recruiting their own staff.

Adult education and training

Adult education and training provision is very diverse, as is the distribution of responsibilities and different type of structures. The National Qualifications System (NQS) established by Decree-Law No 396/2007, 31 December and Decree-Law No. 14/2017, 26 January amends the NQS's legal framework and defines the structures that ensure its operation.

An important part of this set up are the centres specialising in adult qualifications, currently known as Qualifica Centres, which focus on the qualification of adults based on the complementary nature of recognition, validation and certification of competences and the obligation to attend certified training. In addition to the coordinator, the team at each Qualifica Centre is made up of guidance, recognition and validation of competences staff and teacher trainers from the various areas of key competences and the different areas of education and training. This team may also be supported by an administrative technician under the guidance of the coordinator and the respective staff.