Experimentation in Portugal

What is the current status of Blue Education in Portugal

In Portugal, a large network of Blue Schools originates from the Escola Azul program of the Ministry of the Sea in 2016/2017. The initiative was the result of extensive meetings with educators, scientists, NGOs and blue economy stakeholders to find a strategy to promote Ocean Literacy in schools at a national level. Currently, 470 schools are part of the network; Escola Azul and ocean literacy are explicitly included in the new National Maritime Strategy 2021-2030.

The Ministry of Education is working with the Oceano Azul Foundation to integrate ocean topics into the curriculum.

Beyond Escola Azul, various other institutions—including universities, public institutes, research organizations, NGOs, and municipalities—run their own environmental education and ocean literacy programs at both national and local levels.

What are the BlueLightS experimentation activities Portugal

The goal of the experimentation in Portugal is to (1)  Include ocean literacy in the curriculum in all levels of pre-university studies; (2) Promote project work and field visits (3) Create a national teacher training program on ocean literacy involving all the relevant stakeholders, namely those who are already offering training.

The first step to achieve those was to organize the First National Ocean Literacy Conference, which took place in December 2024, and to then make it a regular event (annual or biennial).