President Marcelo has rubber-stamped part of the changes, proposed by the government, to streamline Portugal’s department of education, whittling down the number of ‘head honchos’.
Gone will be the Institute for the Financial Management of Education, the Directorate-General for School Administration and the Directorate-General for School Establishments.
In their place will come the Agency for the Management of the Education System.
In a note on the official website of the presidency, Marcelo makes it clear that he hopes “the merger process and the new agency” correspond to a “more coordinated and effective public administration in education”.
This was always the idea.
Announcing the decisions of the Council of Ministers last month, education minister Fernando Alexandre described the current ‘system’ of entities ruling over the sector as “anachronistic”, “inadequate” and even “redundant in many cases”.
He painted the picture of “too many organisations” (with far too many department heads, no doubt on substantial salaries). In short the current 18 organisations for ‘non-higher and higher education, science and innovation’ are being reduced to just seven, with the subsequent ‘removal’ of no less than 18 heads of department.
The functions of ‘august bodies’ such as FCT (the Foundation for Science and Technology) and the National Innovation Agency will (eventually) come under the umbrella of a new Agency for Research and Innovation.
At the same time, the Directorate-General for Higher Education and the Erasmus+ Agency will be integrated into the new Institute for Higher Education.
The non-higher education system is to be reduced from the current 12 to five organisations, meaning three directorates-general, the school library network, the Institute for Educational Assessment (IAVE), the National Reading Plan, the National Agency for Qualification and Vocational Education, and the Editorial Office of the Ministry of Education and Science “will all be abolished”.
In their place, two major agencies will be created: the Institute for Education, Quality and Assessment, centred on the quality of learning, assessment and the education system, and the Agency for the Management of the Education System, which will “bring together all the dimensions of the system’s administration”, including human resources, explains Lusa.
According to the presentation made by the Minister of Education, the agency will also liaise with regional bodies, schools and local authorities, and the Regional Coordination and Development Commissions will now have a vice-president for Education, responsible for monitoring the implementation of national policies at regional level.
At the outset, academics expressed great concern about some of these plans – particularly the extinction of the FCT, which has not been fully decided by this current promulgation. Indeed, Marcelo says he still has reservations, and the decision will only become final following a future diploma, yet to be approved.
Source material: LUSA
