Consensus on extending free education to secondary and preschool education

This Thursday, the parties agreed to extend in the Constitution the concept of “universal, compulsory and free education” to include secondary, preschool and even nursery, which until now has been provided for in the Basic Law only for the basics.

This discussion dominated the final meeting of the constitutional review committee, with the PS and PSD proving themselves willing to come to a common text with contributions from several parties.

In their proposals, P.S., PSD and Chega argue that, in addition to basic education, secondary education should also become “universal, compulsory and free”, and the socialists want to attribute these three characteristics to preschool education as well.

With a different wording, but with the same intent, the SDP advocates that the state should guarantee universal and free access to pre-school education and day care centers, BE wants to create a “public education network for children and ensure the universal right to day care and pre-school education ”, the PCP calls for a “community early childhood education system, universal and free”, and the IL for “universal and universal access to early childhood education and early childhood education systems”. not to mention free.

“I think dialogue between PS, PSD, PCP and even IL proposals should be possible because there are common ground. I think that there is an issue that can be discussed in terms of accepting an order with contributions from various parties,” said the Socialist MP Isabel Moreira, a position supported by PSD coordinator Andre Coelho Lima.

The BE and PCP went even further and proposed “free access to all levels of education”, which would not have to be passed by the two-thirds required to approve any constitutional amendment (which implies an agreement between PS and PSD).

The article on public, private and cooperative education, in which the SDP and IL wanted to consolidate the complementarity of private and cooperative education with the public network, will remain unchanged, in opposition to the left parties, including the PS.

João Cotrim Figueiredo of Illinois took the opportunity to “clarify the caricature” of the party being anti-state, stressing that liberals simply want to discuss its role, which should be more of a regulator than a supplier and financier.

“Our formulation allows for different types of statism, the formulation of our political opponents does not allow for varying degrees of liberalism, ours is more democratic,” he said.

Isabelle Moreira countered that it was essential “not to have a false freedom of choice” and that these proposals would make “public school the contribution of the poorest”, a position supported by the PCP and BE, while social democrat Coelho Lima stressed that public-private complementarity “can never signify social differentiation.

Along the way, there will also be proposals from Chega for the participation of guardians in the democratic management of schools, or for compulsory teaching in Portuguese at all levels of school education.

Livre proposed that the state recognize “the secular existence of the Mirandese language on the territory of Portugal and support its preservation and development”, which deserved the support of the PSD, but at the same time, the PS allowed only a rule protecting “minority languages” and BE. MP Katarina Martins said she did not understand why “sign language should be excluded”.

On other issues, the SDP intended to strengthen the dignity of the elderly, including the “right to a safe and free life” and “active aging”, but the PS considered that this issue was already sufficiently clarified in the Constitution.

The PKP, on the other hand, wanted to create a new article that would entrench the state’s recognition of ex-combatants and, in particular, disabled military personnel, but the PS and the PSD agreed that the issue should not be constitutional, leading MP Joao Dias to admit that there was surprised and even surprised.