The FCCN 2026 Conference, held from May 5th to 7th at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto, brought together representatives from the education sector on the second day of the event to discuss the digital transformation of education in Portugal.
The session – managed by FCCN, digital services for Education – focused on process reengineering, interoperability, and digital infrastructure, in a debate also marked by the growing presence of Artificial Intelligence in the education sector.
More school, less bureaucracy.
Salome Branco, vice-president of the Agency for the Management of the Education System (AGSE), opened the session with an overview of the work already carried out within the framework of the reform of the education system in Portugal, spearheaded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation (MECI).
Based on the mission announced by the Ministry: To guarantee equal access to quality education throughout the national territory, placing the student and the teacher at the center of everything that is done. Salomé focused her speech on newly created Agency for the Management of the Education System (AGSE), resulting from the fusion of several organisms and emerging with the vision of becoming a hub digital services for education.
In this context, the Process reengineering was identified as a strategic priority, and the work carried out so far was shared: creation of seven process groupsFrom classroom management to student equivalencies, with more than thousand FAQs produced, 13 training sessions held and more than 100 action points definedIt was announced that a Process Factory will continue this initiative, and, in parallel, a single communication channel with the educational community will be established. landing page of the future Education Portal, which will bring together all the bodies of the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (MECI) in a unified digital presence.
Register once, reuse forever
Rui Martins, The manager of the Cooperative Information Systems service at FCCN, the digital services unit of FCT, presented in his speech the EduConnect, the MECI's interoperability platform. The answer to this new tool rests on a simple idea – Register once and reuse forever – achieved through APIs and shared services. that connect schools, central services and suppliers of softwareThe expected impact will materialize in time savings and less bureaucracy, precisely through the reuse of information, with faster registrations and schedules and higher quality information.
A more cyber-secure educational ecosystem
Pedro Silva addressed the The topic of cybersecurity in the educational context., emphasizing its growing importance in an era marked by the expansion of the internet....due to the omnipresence of social networks and the accelerated development of increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence tools. In an increasingly digital school environment, cyber threats are taking on new and more complex forms.This makes it urgent to raise awareness and train students, teachers, and educational communities on safe practices in the digital space.
Equipment, connectivity and AI
Rebeca Sá Couto, member of the board of directors of EduQA, concluded the thematic blocks with a Assessment of digital infrastructure in schoolsAccording to the official, the numbers are significant, with 1.05 million computers distributed within the scope of the C20 — Digital School program, €15.4 million invested in equipment in 2024/2025 and 1300 Digital Education Labs installed in 2025. The next priorities, however, focus on strengthening connectivity, maintaining equipment, and creating mechanisms to monitor the digital infrastructure in each school.
The session ended with the creation of Four working groups will discuss the role of AI in education and learning, as well as the core services of the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (MECI), school applications, and issues of regulation, ethics, and security.Issues such as GDPR compliance, data governance, and recommendations for suppliers of software They dominated the discussion.
The documents that supported the session can be consulted at event page.
