Taina, Leticia, Yolanda and Imran are 4 of the 400 foreign students at the Gil Vicente school group, in Lisbon. A reality that has been increasing and brings challenges for students and teachers.
The increase in the number of foreign students enrolled in Portuguese education is a reality that brings increasingly more challenges for those who learn, but also for those who teach. This is the case of the Gil Vicente school group, in Lisbon, which has students of 64 nationalities.
They are faces that represent different corners of the world. Only in the Gil Vicente school group, in Lisbon, is there 400 foreign students from 64 nationalities. Imran is one of them. Comes alone from Indonesia and arrived in Portugal to learn.
“It’s better to study here than in Indonesia because they offer many programs there but they are expensive. In Portugal, it’s easier, we can study for free and we can learn a lot.”
The case of Taina, Leticia and Yolanda is different from that of Imran. It was the families’ decision, which looking for more peace of mind and a better life that brought them here. Already integrated, the adaptation was not always easyespecially the language.
“For me it was quite difficult, because the educational system does not help a student enough. I can say, I repeated a year because of this, because I don’t know how to write Portuguese correctly and I failed the exams”, reveals Taina.
If adaptation is not simple for those coming from outside, neither is it for those inside. For Dinis, a geography teacher, teaching became reviewing the world map almost daily. With students of different nationalities, he was forced to change the teaching method.
“It’s difficult, I try to bring their experiences and their geography classes to the class and start there, and then integrate Portugal”, says the teacher.
Day-to-day life at school, the integration of students into classes and classes became require other preparation from teachers: “It is necessary to try to reach students who do not speak the language [portuguesa] and this takes some time to think about, to plan to prepare”, confesses Dinis.
In 2019, the number of foreign students in Portuguese schools was 53 thousand. In 2023, the number increased to 140 milaccording to data from Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). A reality that has evolved over time and led schools to question what the challenges and solutions are for these children and young people.
As regards responses from the Government, there are more and more projects to be implemented so that it is easier to integrate students who come from other countries.
