Basic law of the education system (1986): Ruptures, continuities, selective appropriations

Abstract

This article presents a sociological and political analysis of the reform of the education system initiated in the mid-1980s in Portugal. In 1986, the government appointed an Education System Reform Commission to prepare studies and legislative proposals. In that year the parliament approved the Basic Law of the Education System. Both processes proceeded in parallel, only with subsequent articulations, at the initiative of that commission. The fundamental law of education of 1986 resulted from the democratic constitution of 1976 and replaced the previous law of 1973, approved at the end of the authoritarian regime and never regulated. Based on an analysis of the texts of constitutions, law proposals presented in parliament, the laws of 1973 and 1986, as well as other education policy documents, the author reflects critically on the ruptures of the 1986 law against the 1973 law and also on the continuities that could be observed. Other ruptures and continuities are still highlighted between the 1986 law and the education policy agendas and respective legislative output of governments over the last three decades, confirming the plasticity of that law and the political difficulties of the parliament to replace it.