Portugal stands out in the educational landscape of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) with several peculiarities, revealing significant progress, but also persistent challenges, according to the latest report “Education at a Glance 2024” published by the OECD and presented this morning at the Thalia Theatre in Lisbon in the presence of the Minister of Education, Science and Innovation, Fernando Alexandre.

According to a report by ECO, one of the negative points highlighted by the report is related to the high weight that education costs have in family budgets. According to OECD experts, Portuguese families are the ones that contribute the most to bearing the costs of preschool education among the 38 OECD countries.

Despite this level of education being nominally free, Portuguese families continue to bear around a third of the total expenditure on this level of education, a figure surprisingly higher than their contribution to higher education (27%).

“In Portugal, despite pre-primary education being free, families continue to contribute 33% of the expenditure on this level, the highest among OECD countries, and more than their contribution to higher education (27%)”, states the report.

This situation is mainly due to the costs associated with additional services such as meals, transport and extracurricular activities, which are not fully covered by public funding.