Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues

After the end of the ministerial job, Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues went back to the university, where she is leading a new Master Programme in Public Policy. In the beginning of 2010, the Prime Minister appointed her President of the Executive Council of the Luso-American Development Foundation. Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues is rector of ISCTE – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa.

In 2009, the Portuguese pupils performed the highest combined increase in the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment exam scores as compared to 2006 results. Portugal ranked among the OECD average countries for the first time.

A National Secondary Schools Modernization Programme, run by Parque Escolar, was launched in 2007. The programme aims to rebuild more than 330 out of the 500 Portuguese public schools with secondary education. The first phases of the programme were assessed by the OECD. Schools' ICT capacity was boost by the 2007-2010 Technological Plan for Education. As a result of the plan, the ratio of pupils per computer with broadband connection fell from 18:1 in 2005 to 5:1 in 2009. 1-to-1 laptop distribution schemes for teachers and students were successfully deployed and acknowledged abroad.

In 2006, Rodrigues together with the Minister of Labour launched the New Opportunities Initiative, to foster adult education. Three years later, more than 1 million citizens had joined the initiative and 300.000 had received a school certificate.

As Minister of Education of the 17th Constitutional Government (Prime Minister José Sócrates's first Government) from 2005 to 2009, Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues launched a wide range of policies, some of which particularly controversial among teachers, unions, and even some sectors of the then ruling Socialist Party, such as the teacher career and performance assessment reform. These policies were assessed by the OECD.

MLR pushed public schools into vocational upper-secondary education, and from 2005 to 2009, the number of pupils attending vocational education grew from 30.000 to 126.000. As for basic education, nuclear subjects (Portuguese and Maths) were reinforced with an Action Plan for Maths and a National Reading Plan.

MLR has authored dozens of scientific papers and books chapters and published three monographs: Sociologia das Profissões [Sociology of Professions] (1997), Os Engenheiros em Portugal [Engineers in Portugal] (1999) and A Escola Pública Pode Fazer a Diferença [Public School Can Make the Difference] (2010).

MLR is associate professor at ISCTE - Lisbon University Institute, where she has taught since 1986 and received her PhD in Sociology in 1996. She was the national representative at the Eurostat's Working Party of R&D and Innovation Survey (1996–2002), President of the Observatory of Sciences and Technologies at the Ministry of Science and Technology (1997–2002) and the national representative at the OECD Working Party on the Indicators for the Information Society (1999–2002). She also worked in the consultancy and human resources management and training areas.

Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues (MLR, born 19 March 1956 in Lisbon) is a Portuguese professor of Sociology and politician.