The controversy with the placement of students in Lisbon is generating criticism from various parties to the government. The PS admits to moving forward with a Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry (CPI), while Free and BE require clarification on the “chaos” at the start of the school year. The IL is waiting for answers.
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14/09/2026
by
Marcia Guímaro Rodrigues, Lusa
A polemics related to the classification of national examinations marked the end of the last school year. Now, with the beginning of a new school year, the Ministry of Education is again talking to another problem: the placement of students.
At the end of Monday evening, a meeting between the Ministry of Education and about 30 school directors of the municipality of Lisbon, which lasted more than seven hours, culminated in the “distribution” of more than 600 students without placement.
“The goal was to put all the students who were without placement and we achieved it. There was no need to create classes. We distributed the students to the already existing classes, but much remained in supernumerary ", advanced source close to the process to CNN Portugal.
However, the problems in the area of Education have already led the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party (PS), José Luís Carneiro, to admit to moving forward with a Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry (CPI) and the Free and Left Block Parties (BE) to ask for clarification from the Government. To the Right, the Liberal Initiative (IL) said it will not position itself on a possible CPI until it hears the explanations.
Rather, here is what the parties said:
In statements to journalists this Monday, José Luís Carneiro it said that the socialists asked “a set of questions to the government”, which were already answered, and admitted to the possibility of moving forward with an ICP.
“[ The answers] They are being examined to check whether we are moving forward with the committee of inquiry, as I took over in July”, he said.
Asked about the start of the school year, José Luís Carneiro said it is “the first time that happens in public school children arrive at the beginning of the school year and have no school”.
“This is the first time it has happened. We had had a minister who, as we know, made a very serious mistake and launched chaos in national examinations of access to Higher Education, which caused serious damage in access to information and in the right to apply for higher education. And now we have at the start of the school year a circumstance that occurs for the first time and that is very serious [and that is] having parents, families, who are going to court to ensure access to a fundamental right”, he stressed.
O Free, in turn, sent an issue to the Minister of Education, Fernando Alexandre, where he recalled that until the previous school year the cases of unplaced students were resolved by the regional structures of the Directorate-General of School Administration and the Directorate-General of School Establishments (DGESTE), an agency that was extinguished with its competences transferred to the newly established Educational System Management Agency (AGSE).
The party also questioned whether the municipal meetings of clearing vacancies and redistribution of students that previously belonged to the regional structures of the DGEstE were held in this school year and what channels of assistance the new agency offers to families and school directions.
In the same vein, the single Member of the BE, Andreia Galvão, pointed out the problems reported by directors and parents in contacting the new agency.
“The reorganization process, a real dismantling of the Ministry of Education’s services, culminated in this unprecedented chaos. If recent national examinations were the most evident example of this disorganization, the start of this school year now comes to confirm it”, he criticized.
In a question submitted to Parliament, BE also wants to know the number of students without school assigned today and “what is the government’s emergency timetable to ensure the rapid administrative placement of all pupils under compulsory schooling”.
The President of Liberal Initiative, Mariana Leitão, said that the party will not stand on a possible CPI, until she hears all the clarifications she asked for and accused the socialists of hypocrisy.
“ Let us wait for the Ministry to respond to the causes of this problem with vacancies this year and what they are doing so that it does not happen again, because of course, we cannot start a school year with students who are not placed. We have to ensure vacancies for everyone ", stressed, in statements to journalists.
Asked about the possibility raised by the leader of the PS, Mariana Leitão stressed that IL has already made several requests for information and submitted requests about these problems and that, as long as it does not listen to all the entities involved and collect all the clarifications, it will not “position on any other steps”.
It should be noted that a group of parents from the Lisbon area whose children had not been placed in any public school announced last week that it will proceed with a lawsuit against the Ministry of Education.
Some decided to re-enroll their children in private education while awaiting an answer.
The parents complain of a lack of response by the services of the Ministry of Education to e-mails and phone calls and the absence of a face-to-face service.
Until a few months ago, the Directorate General of School Establishments (DGESTE) had its doors open in a space in Alvalade Square, Lisbon. The management was extinguished and the competencies passed to the newly created Agency for the Management of the Educational System (AGSE).