Portuguese parents sue education ministry as 550 Lisbon pupils lack school spots

Placement backlog at school year start

The official start of the Portuguese school year on 11 September 2026 arrived with hundreds of students left without places in the public school system. In the municipality of Lisbon alone, more than 550 children and teenagers from the 1st to the 12th grade remain on waiting lists without an assigned school. The situation affects numerous families who requested transfers from private institutions to public schools, including students from Colégio São José and Avé Maria. On the official enrollment platform, Portal das Matrículas, these students continue to display the status of Not Placed. Many households report growing distress as the first week of term began without desks, textbooks, or assigned teachers.

“Nowadays it is harder to get into a public school than into a university.”

Legal action against the Ministry of Education

Faced with prolonged silence from public authorities, an organized movement of affected families is preparing a lawsuit against the Ministry of Education. The collective established a shared contact address (naosomosbonecos@gmail.com) to coordinate with other parents across the Greater Lisbon region. Movement spokesperson Rui Boavida, who has waited since late July for the transfer of his twin sons into the 9th grade, stated that the legal action aims to hold the state accountable for educational neglect. While Minister of Education Fernando Alexandre attended the formal opening ceremony of the school year in Setúbal, families pointed out the stark divide between official events and their domestic reality. Some households chose to re-enroll their children in private institutions out of desperation, while families without the financial means to pay private school tuition remain stuck in administrative limbo.

“The kids are at home today. They have no books, no school, no teacher. We want to hold the state accountable for how it treats children and families.”

Administrative transition from DGEstE to AGSE

The placement crisis coincides with an internal restructuring of the Ministry of Education that school heads describe as confusing and slow. The central administration abolished the Directorate-General for School Establishments (DGEstE), transferring its responsibilities to the newly created Agency for the Management of the Educational System (AGSE). Under the previous framework, DGEstE operated an in-person public service office at Praça de Alvalade in Lisbon, where families could resolve placement disputes face to face. Parents complain that the new agency operates without physical attendance facilities, leaving inquiries to unanswered phone lines and automated email referrals.

“There is no way to have in-person contact. Apparently, this new agency is something ethereal, it only exists virtually.”

Administrative bottlenecks across school clusters

School directors and educators report that decentralized procedures have complicated the distribution of pupils. Although school clusters received increased administrative autonomy to process registrations, teachers stress that authority alone cannot solve physical capacity limits. Patrícia Gramaxo, a teacher at the Restelo School Cluster (Agrupamento de Escolas do Restelo), noted that when a cluster runs out of places, staff have no direct way of knowing what alternative options remain open in neighbouring schools. Shortages of places are also felt heavily at earlier educational stages, with acute deficits reported in 1st grade classes, kindergartens, and daycare centers in municipalities such as Seixal.