Education, Science and Innovation Minister Fernando Alexandre said on Tuesday that the biggest mistake of public policy in Portugal is the delay in increasing compulsory education to Year 12 or 18 years of age.
In Barcelos, Braga district, during the inauguration of Maria José Fernandez as President of the Coordinating Council of Higher Polytechnic Institutes, Fernando Alexandre emphasized the paradox between joining the euro in 1993, thus expressing Portugal’s desire to compete with other, more developed countries, and the continuity of compulsory education until 9th grade until 2009.
“I can’t understand it, how can you want to compete with the Germans and allow children to leave school at 15? I have often said that the biggest mistake in Portuguese public policy was the time it took to increase compulsory education for Year 12 or Year 18, which only took place in 2009,” he said.
According to the minister, many generations were “sent to factories” at a very early age, to the detriment of training and qualifications.
Fernando Alexandre said the increase in compulsory education was behind the “dramatic decline” in school dropout rates.
He emphasized the “critical” role of polytechnics in “democratizing” access to higher education and said that these institutions must see themselves as transformative agents in the context in which they operate.
He was also pleased with the fact that polytechnics could now award doctorates.
The Polytechnic Institute of Bragança is the first in the country to have an accredited doctorate with the title “Intelligent Systems Engineering”.
Maria José Fernandez is the President of the Polytechnic Institute of Cavado y Ave. In March, she was elected chairman of the Coordination Council of Higher Polytechnic Institutes and was sworn in today.
In her speech, Maria José Fernandez said polytechnics face challenges that require “public policies that will allow them to respond and get to the root of the problems.”
“We cannot have answers that only partially or temporarily solve the problems we face. We are confident that this government policy will not be implemented due to the absence of a ministry of higher education or a state secretariat in the government,” he argued.