Portugal (2013)
ANR TRANSLIT AND COST “TRANSFORMING AUDIENCES/TRANSFORMING SOCIETIES” Media and Information Literacy Policies in Portugal (2013) Experts: Conceição Costa, CICANT-Univ. Lusófona Ana Jorge, CIMJ-Univ. Nova de Lisboa Luís Pereira, CECS-Univ. Minho May 2014 1. Dimension (Short) Historical background The History of Portugal has a very important event, known as the ‘25th of April’, the day when the ‘Carnation revolution’ took place, in 1974. Therefore Portugal is a young democracy – and such fact explains in part what happened latter on in the 80’s, namely in what concerns education. The main legal document on education – Lei de Bases do Sistema Educativo – was approved in Portugal in 1986, instituting education as free and mandatory for the first time for 9 years and until the child is 15 years-old. In 2009, the legal document Lei n. 85/2009 (27 August) established the extension of the age of compulsory schooling to 18 years-old, changing the compulsory education from 9 to 12 years of schooling. Preschool education, intended for 3-6-year-old children, is optional and is often given in public or private kindergartens; basic education lasts for 9 years, from the ages of 6 to 15, and comprises three sequential cycles; after finishing the secondary school, i.e., the 12 years, students can apply for a position at the higher education. The 80’s were, according to Figueiredo (2007), one of the most encouraging decades to the development of what is usually called Information Society, as, following the reforms of the previous education minister Veiga Simão (1970-74), the number of researchers earning a PhD abroad had increased “returning to the country enriched with varied experiences and willing to change a country recently released from a dictatorship” (Figueiredo, 2007: 143).
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