The reform of the MECI was approved a week ago, but today the Council of Ministers enacted seven decrees formalizing changes regarding the organization of the non-higher education system, announced António Leitão Amaro, Minister of the Presidency, in a press conference following the government meeting.
Thus, the creation of the Agency for the Management of the Educational System was approved, which will integrate the Institute of Financial Management for Education and the General Directorates for School Establishments and School Administration.
Education Minister Fernando Alexandre explained last week that the new agency would “bring together all dimensions of system administration,” including human resources.
The creation of the Institute of Education, Quality, and Assessment was also approved, focusing on the quality of learning, assessment, and the educational system. It will include the Directorate-General for Education, the National Reading Plan, the School Libraries Network, and the Educational Evaluation Institute.
One of the decrees extinguishes the National Agency for Qualification and Vocational Education, with some of its responsibilities being partially integrated into the new institute, as well as the dissolution of the General Secretariat for Education.
Additionally, the creation of the Directorate-General for Studies, Planning, and Assessment was approved, which, according to Leitão Amaro, “will have a significant capacity for careful and structured education policy planning and evaluation.”
The new directorate-general will assume some of the responsibilities of the now-defunct Directorate-General for Education and Science Statistics, similar to the National Institute of Statistics.
Decrees were also approved to dissolve the Ministry of Education and Science Publishing, which will be integrated into the National Press – Casa da Moeda, and to alter the regime of regional coordination and development commissions (CCDR), which will now include a vice president for Education, responsible for supervising the regional implementation of national policies.
With 18 entities and 27 senior managers across non-higher and higher education systems, science, and innovation, MECI will now feature only seven entities and 27 senior managers, with dissolved entities being integrated into new ones.
Leitão Amaro said that decrees formalizing services reform in Higher Education, Science, and Innovation will be approved at next week’s Council of Ministers meeting.
“State reform is about making the State more capable, public policies more prepared, better studied, better evaluated. It also means saving resources, reducing structures, reducing leadership positions, but also providing better services,” emphasized the Minister of the Presidency.
Regarding the reduction of structures, Leitão Amaro stated that, following the MECI reform, some teachers currently assigned to ministry services would return to schools.
When asked if the Government has an estimate of how many will be affected, the official only said that “it’s a very significant number of several hundreds,” adding that the final number “will depend on adjustments in transfer processes.”
In Education, Science, and Innovation, the Council of Ministers also approved a measure authorizing the expenditure (approximately seven million euros) for the construction of the Digital Building at the University of Algarve.
