The quality of school buildings is critically important in the drive for improving education. Good quality facilities provide teachers and students with supportive environments which are responsive to their changing needs and can make a real difference to learning and teaching.

This is the report of a review undertaken by the OECD Centre for Effective Learning Environments (CELE) for the Portuguese Government of the Secondary School Building Modernisation Programme (SMP) a major programme to rehabilitate the secondary schools in Portugal. The programme is an ambitious one, entailing the rebuilding, extension, adaptation and re-equipment by 2015 of 332 of the 477 schools that provide upper secondary education in Portugal, with a total investment for the first 205 schools of EUR 2.45 billion. The Portuguese Government has established a state-owned company, Parque Escolar, which has a high degree of independence, to oversee and manage all aspects of the SMP.

In January 2007, the Portuguese government launched a policy to rehabilitate 332 secondary schools by 2015, with a total investment for the first 205 schools of EUR 2.45 billion (Figure 1.1).

This chapter provides some background to the secondary education system in Portugal and the policy, demographic, enrolment and other trends shaping it. The chapter then presents the aims and objectives, administration and delivery and implementation of the School Building Modernisation Programme (SMP).

In this chapter, the strengths and challenges of the School Building Modernisation Programme (SMP) in Portugal are evaluated in detail from the perspectives of governance, funding and quality, suitability and sufficiency of the modernised schools. It provides overall conclusions on the organisation and design of the SMP

This chapter presents the final recommendations of the OECD Review Team as they relate to the main objectives of the Review: the impact of the School Building Modernisation Programme (SMP) on the quality and suitability of school buildings, meeting Portugal’s strategic objectives for secondary education, options for rationalising the SMP and funding.

Rodolfo Almeida is an architect and director of the Division of Architecture at the International Centre for Prospective and Higher Studies (CIPAE), Puebla, Mexico. He is also an international consultant on architecture for education for UNESCO and works with other governments including Bhutan, Saudi Arabia, Haiti, Mozambique, Guatemala, Iran, Cyprus and Mexico.