page_title: Education in Portugal
section_title: Secondary education
hierarchical_section_title: Education in Portugal / Pre-higher education / Secondary education
caption_attribution_description: Português: Vista nascente da Escola Secundária de Gondomar
context_page_description: Education in Portugal is free and compulsory until the age of 18, when students complete their year 12. The education is regulated by the State through the Ministry of Education. There is a system of public education and also many private schools at all levels of education. The first Portuguese medieval universities, such as the University of Coimbra, were created in the 13th century, and the national higher education system is fully integrated into the European Higher Education Area.
  The basic literacy rate of the Portuguese population is 99.44. According to INE, only 3.7 million Portuguese workers completed basic education.
  According to the Programme for International Student Assessment 2015, the average Portuguese 15-year-old student, when rated in terms of reading literacy, mathematics and science knowledge, is placed significantly above the OECD's average, at a similar level as those students from Norway, Poland, Denmark and Belgium, with 501 points. The PISA results of the Portuguese students have been continuously improving, surpassing those of a number of other highly developed western countries like the US, Austria, France and Sweden.
context_section_description: It is only after the 9th year of basic schooling that the Portuguese General
  Education system branches out into different secondary programmes, a higher education-oriented (general secondary programmes), a work-oriented (technological secondary programmes) and an artistic-oriented programme. The conclusion of secondary education (general, technological or artistic programmes) with passing grades confers a diploma, which will certificate the qualification thus obtained and, in the case of work-oriented programmes the qualification for specific jobs.
  All General and Technological programmes share the following subjects known as General Formation:
  Portuguese Language (10th, 11th and 12th years)
  Physical Education (10th, 11th and 12th years)
  Philosophy (10th and 11th years)
  Foreign Language (10th and 11th years)
  Catholic (or other confessions) Moral and Religious Education (10th, 11th and 12th years - facultative)
caption: Gondomar Secondary School, Gondomar.
exif: {"Image Make": "Nokia", "Image Model": "N80", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Nero PhotoSnap 1, 4, 0, 0", "Image DateTime": "2009:02:16 16:50:02", "Image ExifOffset": "192", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail Software": "Nero PhotoSnap 1, 4, 0, 0", "Thumbnail DateTime": "2009:02:16 16:50:02", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "714", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6369", "EXIF ExposureTime": "9/1000", "EXIF FNumber": "7/2", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "24", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:02:16 12:38:02", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:02:16 12:38:02", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "1359/200", "EXIF ApertureValue": "181/50", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "47/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "300", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2044", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up"}