Brussels, 03/06/2010 (Agence Europe) - The European Investment Bank (EIB) has just granted Parque Escolar (PE), a public body owned by the Portuguese government, a €600 million loan to finance investments in the country's secondary school modernisation programme.
The EIB loan will finance the first stage (2007-2012) of the Portuguese secondary school modernisation programme, covering the planning, upgrading, expansion, and furnishing and equipping of 211 secondary schools. The project will benefit over 240,000 students. It will include new teaching, leisure and administrative facilities, libraries, computer rooms, science labs, canteens, bookshops, conference halls, workshops for vocational education, and sport facilities. The facilities will also be available for use by local communities.
The Portuguese secondary school modernisation programme, to be implemented between 2007 and 2015, will renew educational infrastructure of 332 public secondary schools. It will significantly improve the quality of secondary schools across the country, providing an environment more conducive to learning and teaching and enabling efficient building maintenance and management. “The project will have a positive effect in the Portuguese economy as part of measures to overcome the current economic situation through the prompt implementation of a large number of relatively small schemes throughout the country boosting local employment,” the EIB notes.
In 2009, Parque Escolar received a first EIB loan of €300 million to support the secondary school modernisation programme. (O.L./transl.rt)