The new syllabus for the Citizenship and Development subject has been open for public consultation since Monday, July 21, emphasizing less on topics like sexuality or animal welfare and more on financial literacy or entrepreneurship.
The new National Strategy for Citizenship Education (ENEC), set to replace the one established in 2017, was made public on Monday, along with a guide for essential learning in the Citizenship and Development subject.
In the mandatory and transversal topics, the Government’s proposal highlights human rights, democracy and political institutions, sustainable development, and financial literacy and entrepreneurship. A second level of focus includes health, road risk and safety, cultural pluralism and diversity, and the media.
Analyzing the Government’s proposal and the current strategy, it is concluded that the attention given to sexuality or sexual orientation will be absent and only addressed in the context of human rights violations. Meanwhile, animal mistreatment is expected to be discussed under sustainable development for students in the 2nd cycle.
The proposal introduces financial literacy and entrepreneurship, urging younger students to “understand the importance of savings and their objectives” or to “differentiate between borrowing (from family, friends, or banks) and lending.”
In detail, what will be taught in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Cycles and Secondary?
The Government’s proposal suggests that first-cycle students be taught to “show openness and curiosity in knowing others” and to “participate in initiatives celebrating and valuing their own culture as well as other cultures within the constitutional values of Portuguese society,” among other subjects.
Second and third-cycle students are encouraged to value “cultural diversity in the school context,” discuss “the importance of protecting minority rights and their cultures,” and recognize “the challenges migrants face in the host society.”
Only in secondary education are students expected to “critically reflect on the cultural consequences of current globalization processes (homogenization versus differentiation and fragmentation),” to “analyze different forms of discrimination” such as racism, xenophobia, anti-Gypsyism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, misogyny, and to “discuss the role of intercultural dialogue and pluralism in the cohesion of culturally diverse societies.”
A discipline “that pleases Chega”? The reactions
Criticism of this syllabus for the Citizenship subject was immediate, with the Left considering that Luís Montenegro’s Executive “is a danger to everyone” and that the PSD approved “a Citizenship subject that pleases Chega.”
The MEP and former coordinator of the Left Bloc (BE), Catarina Martins, recalled “the fundamental role of sexual education in preventing abuse and gender violence,” while warning that Luís Montenegro’s Executive “is a danger to everyone.”
Studies show the fundamental role of sexual education in preventing abuse and gender violence. The terrible effects of isolating young LGBTQI+ are well documented. This government is dangerous. For children, for women, for everyone. https://t.co/G4fxL5dkcG
— Catarina Martins (@catarina_mart) July 21, 2025
Former Left Bloc deputy Joana Mortágua echoed this perspective, while also suggesting that the Social Democratic Party (PSD) approved “a Citizenship subject that pleases Chega.”
Against all guidelines on children’s and youth rights, countering policies for the protection against sexual abuse of minors, openly combating progress, the PSD approves a citizenship subject that pleases Chega. Any doubt?
— Joana Mortágua (@JoanaMortagua) July 21, 2025
Socialist Isabel Moreira, meanwhile, warned that the far-right “is on the rise” with Luís Montenegro’s governance. “The far-right is on the rise. What place in history, Luís Montenegro. At least that is declared,” she commented on X.
The far-right is on the rise. What place in history, @LMontenegro_PT . At least that is declared. https://t.co/fes7XcsppY
— Isabel Moreira (@IsabelLMMoreira) July 21, 2025
And what does the minister say? Citizenship without gender identity for being “very complex”
Topics related to gender identity will be excluded from the new Essential Learning for the Citizenship and Development subject as they are deemed too complex, explained the Minister of Education yesterday while speaking to journalists following a meeting with unions about support provided to displaced teachers.
“Gender equality, that culture of respect, is very important. A much more complex issue is the matter of gender identity. Indeed, it is not part of the essential learning,” clarified the Minister of Education, Science and Innovation.
The Minister of Education, Fernando Alexandre, stated that it is “a hasty interpretation” to deduce that sexual education is not included in the new National Strategy for Citizenship Education (ENEC), which entered public consultation this Monday.
When specifically asked about issues related to sexuality, the minister did not comment but confirmed that gender identity will not be included in the essential learning.
“It is a matter of great complexity and often people are not even prepared to teach it, especially when we are talking about very young students,” he insisted, despite the document mentioning, in the context of Human Rights for the 3rd cycle, the analysis of “historical and current cases of human rights violations (including, among others, (…) such as violence against people with non-normative sexual orientation and gender identity and expression).”
