Single Education Portal (PT0009)

What is the problem addressed by the commitment? The multiplicity of public portals related to the compulsory cycle of studies in Portugal (basic and secondary). The portals that a parent and student access have different natures and disperse information. For example, there are portals for day-to-day management (consultation of assessments, absences and scheduling of tests), for the management of meals (typically managed by municipalities), for the formalization of enrolments and transfers, for access to free textbooks, and others. This problem is compounded by (i) the lack of simplicity in accessing information, (ii) opportunities for improvement in the language used, to which must be added (iii) the low digital literacy of part of the users.

What is the commitment? Create a single gateway (Single Education Portal) that aggregates platforms and portals of public entities regarding school life events of mandatory education in Portugal. The Portal shall ensure: ● The simplification of login and the use of the same entity manager, adopting the principles of autenticação.gov; ● Compliance with existing public service standards in Portugal; ● Standardization about services and existing portals; ● Prior consultation with different groups of potential users, namely students, parents, teachers and employees.

How does the commitment contribute to solving the problem identified? The centralisation of platforms and services related to school life events of mandatory education in Portugal in a single channel will contribute to: ● A significant improvement in the browsing experience and in accessing information; ● A framework of the various digital services and their usefulness; ● An increase in the awareness of the different services; ● An increase in the ability to alert to obligations and new information; ● Getting closer to users' real needs by involving them in the design phase.

Why is the commitment relevant to the values of the OGP? Within the framework of transparency, by increasing the visibility and intelligibility of access to the multiple platforms that are relevant to the life events of mandatory public education in Portugal. In public participation (i) by collecting the real needs of users in the design of the project and (ii) by the new instrument of access to information and its instrumentalization for continuous collection of contributions. In the technological field the commitment has at its genesis the development of a digital solution.

Additional information Measure #103 of Simplex 2021, budget of 135 thousand euros. Point e) of the reform for digital education contained in Component 20 of the PRR.

Description of expected results ● Centralisation of digital services relevant to the lifecycle of mandatory education; ● Increase in the rate of use of services in digital format (reducing pressure on face-to-face administrative service); ● Reduction of non-compliance related to administrative obligations; ● Increase of traffic generation for the different services available; ● Increase levels of satisfaction of the school community with the services.

Macro activities Start date Completion date 1. Identification of the services to be integrated in the portal and the underlying procedures July 2021 October 2021 2. Availability of the Portal (phase 1) – availability of public portals without requiring authentication. September 2021 November 2021 3. Availability of the Portal (phase 2) - availability of the services requiring authentication and personal area. November 2021 December 2021 4. Assessment of the Portal’s features and identification of corrections and developments December 2021 May 2022

Action Plan Review

Commitment 1: Implement the single education portal

Results Report

Commitment 1. Implement the single education portal

Commitment 1 sought to create a single education portal, which would aggregate all platforms and portals of public entities related to school life events in the compulsory education system in Portugal and enable free, easy, and protected access through a common authentication system adopting the principles of autenticação.gov. ^[1]

The Ministry of Education established the single education portal, which is operational and accessible for different profiles: Sponsor of Education, Teacher, Direction, School Services, Other Users or Entities, and Collaborator at the Ministry of Education. ^[2] The IRM researcher could not enter the platform to assess the scope of information provided. However, RNAA meeting notes from December 2021 state that the aggregation of 40 portals had been completed in the single education portal. ^[3] For example, the single education portal is integrated with the Escola 360º website. Escola 360º is an integrated student management system from pre-school to secondary education, making all administrative information relating to students available on a single platform, restricted to those involved in the student’s education. ^[4]

Before creating the single education portal, the Ministry of Education surveyed different groups of potential users to collect their demands and identify the services that would be integrated into the portal. ^[5] The IRM could not verify the extent of the survey, who was consulted, and how the results fed the design of the portal. The last activity is still pending as the Ministry of Education has not yet carried out an internal assessment of the portal to make corrections and improvements. Civil society indicated that more resources would be required to develop the portal to its full capacity. ^[6]

In July 2022, responsibility for this commitment switched from the Directorate-General of Education and Science Statistics to the Institute of Education Financial Management after a decree from May 2022 transferred the competencies on information systems to that institute. ^[7]

Through the creation of the single education portal, the commitment simplified access to education-related information, and the portal can be expected to be sustained in time.