Numbers of foreigners living in Portugal has almost doubled in decade
The number of foreign school children attending Portuguese schools has increased in recent years, with the academic year 2021/2022 registering more than 100,000 – equivalent to almost one in 10 of the total number.
The data is contained in the “State of Education 2022” report, released today by the National Education Council (CNE), which paints a picture of education in Portugal.
Foreign pupils have long been a fairly plentiful reality in Algarve public schools. But this trend across the nation now is undeniable, as it has become clear that the country’s resident foreign population has almost doubled in the last decade.
In 2021/2022, 1.2 million pupils were enrolled in primary and secondary education. In mainland Portugal, schools were attended by 105,855 children and young people of foreign nationality from more than 200 countries.
With an increase of almost 14,000 compared to the previous school year, the 79,796 foreigners between the 1st and 3rd cycles (i.e. from years one to nine) represented 9.3% of the total number of pupils. Almost half belonged to the Brazilian community (44.6%).
Among the most common nationalities in primary education are Angolans (6,613 pupils) with Ukrainians (5,019) more than doubling in one year as a result of the war in Ukraine.
Coming from 246 countries, there were 26,059 foreign pupils in secondary education, 3,502 more than the previous year and the equivalent of 7.9%, writes Lusa.
As in primary education, the largest community was Brazilian (40.3 %), followed by Angolan (10.0 %) and pupils from São Tomé and Príncipe (8.0 %).
In comparison, the proportion of Ukrainian pupils is much lower, accounting for only 3.5 % (924 in total).
The Lisbon Metropolitan Area accounts for almost half of all pupils of foreign nationality – only 5% were in the Alentejo.
Despite the growing trend, the report notes that “at all levels and cycles of education, the proportion of foreign schoolchildren with access” to the subject of Portuguese as a non-native language is low.
Among the various nationalities taking Portuguese as a non-native subject, Indians were the most common in primary school (9.6 %), followed by Guinea-Bissau (9.2 %) and Ukrainians (8.6 %).
In secondary school, pupils from Nepal accounted for 11.9% of foreigners taking the subject, followed by pupils from India and Guinea-Bissau with 7.9% and 7.8% respectively.
The trouble with classes for Portuguese as a non-native language is that at a later stage in the education cycle they are no longer offered, and then the ‘material’ facing pupils becomes the same as for Portuguese-speaking counterparts, often posing increased challenges.
Source material: LUSA
