The budget allocations for education in the proposal for the State Budget for 2026 (OE2026) are under discussion in parliament today. The minister outlined that one strategic objective for the coming year is to ensure access to accurate information, allocating 12.5 million euros for projects aimed at finally answering the question, “how many students are without classes.”
Highlighting the importance of having a reliable information system, the Minister of Education, Science, and Innovation (MECI), Fernando Alexandre, justified the need to “monitor all students in compulsory education.”
“Therefore, we will change the law to make registration on the portal obligatory for all students in compulsory education, enabling us to monitor school dropout rates and know where the students are,” he announced.
According to Fernando Alexandre, the registration portal “still has an issue because it is only for public school students,” excluding those attending private schools or institutions of social solidarity (IPSS).
The ministry aims for all students to register on the portal, which requires a “robust and quality registration portal.”
Adding to the risk of unidentified school dropout, other issues like accurately determining real needs in preschool education, were exemplified by Fernando Alexandre.
“Our preschool estimates are very imprecise because many families enrolling children in preschool already had a spot at a kindergarten but could be with an IPSS or private institution,” he explained, revealing that announcing a need for 12,000 more places was “far above real needs” and was being refined with the help of local authorities.
“There were municipalities that had defined 400 places and then contacted all families and concluded only 50 were needed,” stated the minister during the OE2026 proposal debate, which proposes an increase of over 621 million euros for the MECI.
The OE2026 stipulates 736.5 million euros for expanding the preschool education network, allowing municipalities to open 62 more rooms, along with 40 additional rooms in public education and 1,239 more places in private institutions.
“Once the registration portal is established, we will be able to track all students from the first year of preschool to higher education,” the minister further emphasized.
Another obstacle with current information systems is their inability to link secondary and higher education, which could pose issues for families regarding the continuity of social action support.
According to the minister, improvements in systems should also identify how many students are effectively without classes, one of the minister’s significant concerns. He reported that there are still 480 school clusters with teacher shortages, 12 of which have at least 10 vacant schedules.
“When we provide the number of students in classes, we will give accurate numbers,” he assured, promising the process would be concluded within “this academic year.”
The ministry’s new information system will be ready “in two years,” disclosed the minister, focusing on the teacher shortage and vacant teaching schedules during the presentation of OE2025, which anticipates a “6% increase” for education, higher education, and science sectors, equating to “621 million euros more” than the government’s projected expenditure for this year.
