Abstract

In recent decades, there has been a growing need to produce quantitative information to enable analyses and policy formulation in the field of education (Leite et al., 2014). Societies are exerting increasing pressure to promote greater access to information and greater transparency and rigour in its dissemination. The demand for quantitative information has also been encouraged by supranational institutions such as the OECD, European Commission, World Bank and UNESCO. 

Portugal still has significant structural delays in education compared to other European countries (Teixeira et al., 2014), and it is important to monitor the extent to which the low qualifications of families continue to influence the pattern of participation and relative success of children and young people. These are also conditioned by expectations in terms of remuneration and employment and, although Portugal continues to be characterised by high returns to education (Figueiredo et al., 2013 and 2015), there is growing inequality in these returns and there appears to be a growing mismatch between the supply of qualifications and demand (Cerejeira et al., 2015). The scope of the Education Observatory should be broad.

The relevance and impact of educational institutions cannot be separated upstream from the socio-economic and territorial context in which they are located and have increasingly been measured downstream through their articulation with the economic system. In addition to their impact on training, educational institutions should be analysed as key players in the dynamics of economic growth and social development (Rodrigues & Melo, 2013). It will therefore be important to provide sufficiently disaggregated data to: support families' decision-making processes and prevent participation in the system from decreasing in a context of high returns; monitor the evolution of the degree of articulation between the education system and non-academic organisations; assess the impact of education more broadly, both economically and in terms of increasing the social capital of Portuguese society (political, civic and cultural participation, health and living conditions). 

Putting the Observatory proposal into operation involves collecting the relevant documents to identify indicators to characterise the system and enable it to be compared internationally. It is also important to reconnect the production of data with its users, fostering a more participatory dimension in decision-making.

CoPIn

CAFTe – Curriculum, Assessment, Training and Technologies in Education

Funding

Fundação Belmiro de Azevedo

Principal Investigator

Carlinda Leite

Partners

Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Universidade do Porto (Instituição proponente)
Fundação Belmiro de Azevedo