Lisbon, Nov. 5, 2024 (Lusa) - More than 500 primary and secondary schools in Portugal are in a state of disrepair, the Minister of Education recognised on Tuesday, announcing an investment plan for the recovery of the school estate that is not solely dependent on European funds.
"At the moment we have more than 500 schools that have been identified as being in a state of disrepair. That's almost 10% of all schools and it's the result of a lack of planning," criticised the Minister of Education, Science and Innovation during a hearing in parliament on the draft state budget bill for 2025.
Fernando Alexandre regretted that the logic until now has been "when there are European funds, you spend them".
According to the minister, there are around 6,000 schools in the school estate, so it's not "very complicated to have an annual investment plan", which is an independent plan that allows us to think about medium and long-term action.
The work could be paid for by EU funds, the state budget or loans from the Investment Bank: "We can't work according to European funds. The idea is to draw up an investment plan and the governments go looking for the money," he said.
The minister added that "the plan isn't finished yet" and "it will always be done in conjunction with the local authorities".
According to the next state budget proposal, the government has increased the amount earmarked for education by 6.8%, and total consolidated expenditure is expected to be €7.47 million.
Fernando Alexandre recalled today that the 2025 state budget aims to guarantee equal opportunities for all pupils, therefore focusing on reducing the number of pupils without classes, enhancing teaching careers, improving learning, but also investing in the modernisation of schools.
As well as renovating dilapidated buildings, the government's priority is to equip schools with technological equipment, creating digital resources and re-equipping schools with professionals to modernise the services on offer, explained Fernando Alexandre.
The budget impact of the measure to invest in the modernisation of schools will be €488.8 million: €214 million for improving connectivity and school management; €188 million for technological and specialist centres and €78.8 million for digital educational resources and €7.2 million for national tests and exams.
Fernando Alexandre recalled that a debate is already underway on the revision of external evaluations, which will once again take place at the end of the cycles (4th, 6th and 9th grade), thus ceasing to be benchmarking tests that take place in the middle of the cycles.
On the subject of equipment in schools, Fernando Alexandre also revealed that schools have already been asked to survey their computer equipment needs: "We asked them to inform us of all their computer equipment needs by 31 October," he said.
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