Educational Reforms in Portugal: Helping to Raise the Profile of VET

Abstract

schools tend to be used as agents for class differentiation, limiting the access of the lower socio-economic classes to higher education and social advancement. As Benavente points out, in a society divided into social classes, the school is one of the agents that maintains and reproduces the class structure (Benavente, 1976, p. 16). This article is a case study of technical/vocational education in Portugal, and of its relation to class stratification and the technical needs of industry. To understand the reforms of the 1970s and 1980s, I will analyse some aspects of Salazar's educational reforms that subsequently led to the present political and educational reforms. Although the Portuguese student movement of the 1960s has been seen mainly as a political statement against the colonial wars in Africa, the dissatisfaction among educators at that time also had an impact on the students who fought for political and consequently educational reform. The 1974 revolution restored democracy to the country, and in January 1986 Portugal joined the European Community (EC). Debilitated by 13 years of colonial war (1961-1974), Portugal's pre-industrial infrastructures made it a poor competitor in the world market: over the last 18 years it has tried to overcome these barriers. This task has demanded tremendous effort from its people. As Emidio points out, Portugal suddenly finds itself setting off in pursuit of the other European countries in an attempt to make up for lost time, like an athlete who starts a race after the others (Emidio, 1988, p. 195). In this effort to catch up, therefore, any educational reform in Portugal must stress the technical and academic competencies which the country needs for its educational, industrial and technological development. Although most European educational systems have been very centralised, and thus undemocratic, since the Napoleonic era, Portugal today has one of the most democratically administered educational systems in Europe, allowing students, parents and teachers to participate in the decision-making process and schools policy development. As Ruben Cabral says: 'The democratic administration of the Portuguese schools is, theoretically, one of the most progressive systems found in the western world ...' (Cabral, 1989, p. 422). Education took a new direction in 1986, when the Portuguese parliament approved the Law on Basic Education (Ministry of Education, 1986) which sets guidelines for the entire educational system in Portugal. The implementation of