Maths to be compulsory from 10th to 12th grade on every course. The new rules will apply from the 2028/2029 school year
On 4 November the education minister, Fernando Alexandre, told parliament that maths will become compulsory throughout secondary school, from 10th to 12th grade, on every course, including vocational ones (Jornal Económico). All secondary pupils will take a common core of subjects, and each pupil will choose the rest of the subjects on their course.
At present maths is not compulsory across the whole of secondary school: pupils on humanities and arts courses can do without it.
The new curriculum, setting out subjects and hours, will go out to public consultation before the end of 2026 and will take effect from the 2028/2029 school year (DN). The first pupils to study under the new rules will be those currently in 8th grade: they will start 10th grade in 2028.
Primary school is changing too. The plan is to merge the first six grades into a single stage. At present grades 1 to 4 form a separate cycle, in which almost all lessons are taught by one teacher, while grades 5 and 6 make up the second cycle. This plan will also go out to public consultation before the end of the year, and from September 2027 the new structure will be piloted in a number of schools. In 2027 the core content required in each subject will also be rewritten to include digital skills and artificial intelligence.
Meanwhile, schools are still short of teachers: as of 2 November, 255 teaching posts remained unfilled, 62% of them in Greater Lisbon.
