Education, Development and Social Inclusion in Portugal: Policies, Processes and Results

The Lisbon Strategy's guidelines transformed education and training into unavoidable economic and social priorities. These guidelines also revealed that some European countries were far from achieving the minimum baseline for their inclusion in new knowledge economies and guaranteeing the sustainability of the lifelong learning processes implemented. In this context, a broad priority education program started developing in Portugal (TEIP Program), aimed at recovery from a significant educational lag and fulfilling the European guidelines that maintain that all citizens must develop skills and competencies towards their employability and foster further learning, active citizenship and intercultural dialogue. Throughout the communication we will present our analysis and reflections about the program's dynamics and results, mainly through methodologies of a quantitative nature (education statistics, national examinations results). Reflections will be complemented by information gathered from interviews with key actors in the TEIP program (educational administration offices’ program coordinators; program consultants; school directors) where some of the core strategies and change processes harnessed are identified. Data points to a reduction in school failure and school dropout rates in TEIP schools. However, significant differences still persist when comparing TEIP results and national results, proving that an important path must yet be taken in Portugal in order to ensure a quality inclusive education