Definition of the target group(s)
With regard to their own autonomy, there is a set of organisational and curricular options that allows schools to adopt appropriate solutions to all their students’ specific contexts and needs, improving learning, combining flexible management of basic curricular matrices of basic and upper secondary education and training provision (Decree-Law No 55/2018, 6 July) with the provisions included in the Legal Framework for Inclusive Education (Decree-Law No 54/2018, 6 July in its current version).
To this end, since 2020, we cannot restrict target groups, but rather consider a range of universal measures that each school should consider to help all students with a multilevel approach.
However, support measures geared towards certain target groups are identified, namely:
- migrant students recently arrived to the Portuguese educational system
- children and young people who are beneficiaries or seekers of international protection.
Specific support measures
Linguistic support measures for migrant students
To promote the educational success of migrant pupils who have recently entered the Portuguese education system, there is support for learning Portuguese as a subject and as a school language. There is Portuguese as a non-native language (PLNM) in the first, second and third cycles of basic education, as well as science-humanities courses, specialised artistic courses in upper secondary education and vocational courses.
The DGE supports schools and teachers on its dedicated website.
Despatch No 2044/2022, 16 February, establishes the rules to ensure support for students whose mother tongue is not Portuguese.
Support measures for refugee children and young people
As a result of measures previously adopted to speed up the integration of children and young people who are beneficiaries of, or applicants for, international protection into the education system, there are extraordinary measures to accommodate this target group in school clusters/non-clustered schools (AE/ENA), namely the development of language learning in the host country and, in the first phase of integration, the attendance of teaching activities that the school considers appropriate for the student without the student being disconnected from the group/class.
These extraordinary measures focus on:
a) granting equivalences of foreign qualifications and/or a place in a given school year and educational provision
b) gradual integration within the Portuguese curriculum and consolidation of Portuguese language learning
c) school social support
d) On its website, the DGE provides documents on these educational measures regarding refugee children and young people.
Support measures for student’ academic success
Support measures for students in basic and upper secondary education include, among others:
1. implementation of literacy and intercultural projects.
2. support from mediators.
3. strengthening of study support measures.
4. additional support included in the student’s timetable.
5. specific tutorial support.
6. differentiated pathways which include dual certification courses equivalent to the completion of compulsory education and integration into working life (education and training courses for young people).
For basic education students, measures promoting academic success and combating school dropout have been adopted. These include:
- assistance in the classroom, emphasising collaborative experiences and practices.
- continuing study support in the first cycle of basic education, alongside other supplementary curriculum activities.
- monitoring students who progress to the second and third cycle with a grade below 3 in Portuguese and Maths in the previous school year.
- the adoption of different pathways, such as alternative integrated education and training pathways and programmes adapted to the student’s profile and characteristics under exceptional conditions that are duly justified by the school and approved by the relevant educational administration services.
According to Legislative Order No 10-B/2018, schools are entitled to additional timetable credit to provide specific tutorial support to students in the second and third cycles of basic education who have had to repeat a grade two or more times during their time at school. Tutorial support, in the terms indicated above, is permanent monitoring of students to find suitable solutions to the specific problems of each student, facilitating and supporting study, their integration into class and the school, following school rules and school life.
For students who have shown learning difficulties at any point in basic education in any subject there is a pedagogical plan that contains recovery strategies to overcome the problems detected.
Strategies for learning and inclusion for all students struggling to access the curriculum include consolidating credit hours granted exclusively to the Multidisciplinary Support Teams for Inclusive Education (EMAEI).
For upper-secondary students, whenever learning difficulties are detected, measures are taken to prevent school failure and dropout, via the following:
- Referral to educational provision that is adapted to the student's profile, after the redefinition of their school pathway, resulting from the opinion of monitoring and guidance teams.
- Implementation of a modular system, as an alternative to the regular education curriculum for students over 16.
- Encouraging both student and parent or guardian to choose the school whose educational project that best suits the student’s pathway and motivations for learning.
During the 2020/2021 school year, given the exceptional nature of the pandemic, specific tutorial support was extended to upper secondary school students who had been retained the previous school year. This measure was extended in 2021/2022 (cf. Plan 21/23-School +; Teaching and learning area, specific action 1.6.1).
Support measures for educational success at school
National programme for the promotion of school success (PNPSE)
Framework and aims
Created by the Council of Ministers Resolution no. 23/2016, 23rd March, PNPSE falls within these guidelines and strategic priorities of public educational policy, with the intent to mobilise Portuguese society to a continuous struggle against school failure and educational inequalities.
During the 2020/2021 school year, cognisant of the social and educational inequalities accentuated by the pandemic and lock-down, the Ministry of Education, through the PNPSE Mission, invited school clusters/non-clustered schools to design personal, social and community development plans (PDPSC). The aim of this was to promote improvements in social, physical and emotional well-being, consolidating family and community involvement in educational dynamics and promoting quality learning.
PDPSC has continued in the 2021/2022 school year, as part of School+ 21|23 Plan, offering a support measure for schools in the areas "Teaching and Learning" and "Supporting Educational Communities" (specific actions 1.6.3. and 2.1.2). The PDPSCs focus priority intervention on stimulating socio-emotional intelligence and personal development, family and community involvement, and the development of reading, writing and communication skills.
For more information on PNPSE, see Subchapter 14.2 - National reforms in School Education.
Programme for Priority Intervention Educational Areas (TEIP 4)
Following the publication of Order no. 7798/2023 of 28 July, which approves the fourth generation of the Programme for Priority Intervention Educational Areas (Programa Territórios Educativos de Intervenção Prioritária - TEIP4) and establishes the respective guidelines, the 2023/2024 school year was marked by the transition from the TEIP3 programme to its new phase. The TEIP4 programme will thus be developed from the 2024/2025 school year onwards, as an educational policy measure aimed at school clusters/non-clustered schools located in territories with a high number of children and young people at risk of social vulnerability, with the aim of ensuring inclusion and educational success, improving the quality of learning and combating school dropout. The programme refocuses the measures, granting greater autonomy to educational communities, with the aim of promoting:
- More flexible and innovative interventions to meet the needs of pupils and their families.
- The mobilisation of endogenous educational resources capable of promoting more sustainable local development.
As the programme targets schools located in underprivileged areas, with high rates of children and young people at risk of social vulnerability, the social vulnerability requirement of each school in public education in mainland Portugal was calculated by region (NUTII), based on data provided by the Directorate-General for Education and Science Statistics (DGEEC). The analysis considered the following social variables:
i) percentage of students benefiting from the school social action scheme;
ii) percentage of students whose mothers have less than a 12th grade education; and
iii) percentage of migrant students.
On 15 January 2024, the Director-General for Education (DGE) launched the application procedure for the TEIP4 Programme under the terms of Article 5(2) of Order 7798/2023 of 28 July, by means of a notice published on the DGE's website. The applicants (school clusters/non-clustered schools) submitted proposals for Action Plans (AP) for implementation from 2024/2025 on, accompanied by partnership agreements between each school and the respective local authority. The APs, with a prospect of three school years, include a set of strategic measures and actions for intervention in the school and community, organised around three main intervention areas: 1) Teaching and Learning, 2) Leadership and 3) Community, as well as a set of general improvement targets to be met at the end of the plan's implementation, considering the dimensions of educational success (internal and external assessment), school dropout, absenteeism, indiscipline and involvement of parents.
In July 2024, the new list of Organic Units (OU) integrated into the TEIP4 network from 2024/2025 school year on was published, in which schools were divided into two groups of schools outlined in Article 4(2) of Order No 7798/2023, 28 July:
Group 1 - TEIP schools in development (OUs with the highest social vulnerability index)
Group 2 - TEIP schools in transition (OUs that were part of the TEIP3 programme and do not meet the requirements to be part of Group 1).
The TEIP school network will increase from 146 TEIP3 OUs to 165 TEIP4 OUs in 2024/2025, of which 70 are in Group 1 and 95 in Group 2, distributed as follows across the 5 Portuguese NUTII: 16 in the Algarve; 28 in Alentejo; 51 in the Lisbon metropolitan area; 17 in the Centre and 53 in the North.
More information available at:
Legislative Order No 20/2012, 3 October
Legislative Order No 10-B/2018, 6 July
Resolution of the Council of Ministers No 90/2021, 7 July
Despatch No 7798/2023, 28 July
Resolution of the Council of Ministers No 140/2024, 17 October