The Minister of Education, Science and Innovation, Fernando Alexandre, announced today the imminent launch of a tender for the renovation of 237 schools. He made this statement to journalists on the sidelines of the 4th edition of the Teaming Club Conference, which brings together the Centers of Excellence from the European Union’s “Teaming for Excellence” program.
The renovations are estimated to cost 850 million euros, with 40% of the schools located in the Lisbon region. “This is a region with a significant shortage of human resources and infrastructure,” the minister explained.
According to Fernando Alexandre, the renovations will sometimes necessitate “the closure of schools,” a reality that has been occurring across the country, as well as the relocation of students to temporary modular buildings.
There are schools that haven’t undergone any renovations “for 40 or 50 years,” he said. In these cases, having classes in modular buildings might be preferable to traditional classrooms: “It will always be a temporary situation, but often the modular buildings are in better condition than the classrooms where students used to be.”
This new tender is part of an investment plan “worth one billion euros to be realized by the end of the decade,” the minister added, noting that the goal is to have “dozens of schools renovated each year.”
