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Schools

Portuguese school rankings, explained

What the national exam tables measure, what they leave out, and where to read the originals.

These tables compare results in specified Portuguese assessments, not overall school quality. Schools with different curricula, too few eligible exams or unavailable data may not appear. A school's absence is not a poor result.

Find the ranks for your area

Choose a school year and a place. We take you to that view in PÚBLICO's 2025 ranking, where every school is listed with its rank. We link to their tables instead of copying them.

Open the ranking in PÚBLICOOr see Observador's version

PÚBLICO's main rank compares each school with similar schools. In their list you can also sort by exam average alone. Each school's rank, average and change since last year are in their table, not here. The ranking is theirs and opens on their site.

Official results, by region

From the Ministry's statistics office (DGEEC) report on the 2025 national exams. These are published figures for whole regions, not schools.

43%

of pupils in lower secondary (7th to 9th year) had a "direct path of success" in 2023/24: no repeated year and a pass in both 9th-year tests.

All regions in one list
  • Braga51%
  • Coimbra51%
  • Viana do Castelo46%
  • Aveiro46%
  • Porto45%
  • Vila Real45%
  • Viseu45%
  • Leiria44%
  • Guarda42%
  • Lisboa41%
  • Castelo Branco41%
  • Évora39%
  • Santarém38%
  • Bragança37%
  • Faro35%
  • Portalegre34%
  • Setúbal34%
  • Beja33%
  • 9th-year tests (1st phase, 2025): 94,557 Portuguese tests averaged 3.0 out of 5, and 96,999 Maths tests averaged 2.8. 70% of Portuguese and 49% of Maths results were passes.
  • 9th-year tests by district: the best averages were in Coimbra and Braga (Portuguese 3.1, Maths 2.9). The lowest were in Setúbal, Beja and the Azores (Maths 2.5).
  • Secondary exams (1st phase, 2025): 239,853 exams were taken. Subject averages ran from about 9 to about 14 out of 20.

Source: DGEEC, Provas Finais e Exames Nacionais: Principais Indicadores 2025, published October 2026. Mainland schools only for the direct-path indicator. School-by-school figures are on the Ministry's InfoEscolas portal.

On our school profiles

Where a school in our directory appears in PÚBLICO's 2025 tables, its profile quotes the rank, average and a link to the source. So far we have done this for these schools in Cascais: Colégio Marista de Carcavelos, Salesianos do Estoril, Salesianos de Manique, Colégio do Amor de Deus, Externato Nossa Senhora do Rosário, Escola 31 de Janeiro and Colégio Senhora da Boa Nova. We have also added Colégio Santo André and Colégio Miramar in the Mafra area, and Escola Internacional de Torres Vedras. None of the Lisbon international schools in our directory appear in these tables, because they follow other curricula. That is not a verdict on them.

What a Portuguese ranking is

Every year, Portuguese newspapers publish league tables of schools. They are built from the national exams that pupils take in the 9th and 12th years, and from 2025 also from new tests in the 4th and 6th years.

Each newspaper chooses its own subjects, its own minimum number of exams and its own method. The same school can sit in a different place in two tables. That is normal, not a mistake.

What they do not tell you

  • They cover Portuguese-curriculum exams. Schools that teach the IB, British, American or German curriculum usually do not take these exams, so they are simply not in the tables.
  • They do not measure language support, help for children with special needs, wellbeing or how well a school fits your child.
  • Small schools may have too few exams to appear. Missing is not the same as low.
  • Changes in the exam rules and the 2020 to 2023 disruptions mean years are not always comparable.

Latest rankings from the newspapers

We link to the publishers instead of copying their tables. Read each method before you compare two tables.

What we are building

We want to add an English results explorer for Portuguese-curriculum schools, starting with one verified year and stage. We will only publish results we have checked at school level, with the method and the source on every table.

We will not mix newspapers into one score, and a school's paid partner status will never change who appears or where. Read the full methodology and what is still open.

Choosing a school

Exam results are one input. For international families the questions that matter more are usually language, curriculum, fees and distance. Start with the school directory or the guides.