Portugal

Compulsory Attendance Age

6–18. Compulsory education begins if the child is 6 years of age by September 15. After 15 years of age there are different possibilities to finish the secondary education degree.

Legal Status

Portugal has laws for homeschooling that date back to 1949, but homeschooling has only become a visible choice since around 2016. Still, the number of students in this choice represent less than 1% of enrolled children. In accordance with data from the Ministry of Education (2018/2019), 909 children are now enrolled in homeschooling or Individual Teaching (n = 50). Individual teaching is distinguished from homeschooling by the fact that a teacher, and not a relative, is the one responsible for the students’ education.

In order to homeschool, students have to be registered in a public school, and the parents or legal tutor must have a certain school achievement level (regulated by a regulation from 1977) that translates, more or less, to one school level above that of the child. Moreover, the one responsible for homeschooling (relative or not) must live in the same house as the child.

Children are assessed through exams at the end of each school cycle as external students.

At the moment, regulations are under development with the new Home Education Decree no. 55/2018 that established a curriculum for primary and secondary education, guiding principles and organizations and evaluation of learning. The present decree seeks to regulate educational modalities of individual teaching and home education, defining the rules and procedures concerning enrollment and attendance, as well as monitoring procedure and the certification of learning. The Decree gives total authority to the central government to disapprove “requests” to homeschool and requires parents to have a university degree before they apply.

Above text, with minor editing, came from Sónia daVeiga, a member of the National HomeSchooling Parents Association in Portugal (ANPED - Associação Nacional de Pais em Ensino Doméstico).