Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues
Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues Reis ( born March 19, 1956 in Lisbon, Portugal), Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues mostly, is a sociologist and Portuguese politician of the Socialist Party. Since March 12, 2005, it is education minister in the Cabinet Sócrates I.
Rodrigues finished her studies in sociology in 1984 at the Lisbon Institute of Labour and Enterprise Sciences with the Lizenziatur ( Licenciatura ). In 1996 she qualified as a professor at the same institution. Since graduating, she has lectured also at the Institute.
Between 1985 and 1989 she was involved in the establishment of the socio-historical archive of the Portuguese National Library. At times, it was the official representative in the OECD Working Group NESTI ( Working Party on National Experts on Science and Technology Indicators) and WPIIS ( Working Party on Indicators for the Information Society). Between 1996 and 2002, she represented the Portuguese State in the Working Party of R & D and Innovation Survey of Eurostat. Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues served from 1997 to 2002 as President of the Observatório Ciências e the Tecnologias ( Observatory of Science and Technology) of the Portuguese Ministry of Culture.
After the victory of the Socialist Party in the 2005 parliamentary elections appointed Prime Minister José Sócrates Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues as the new Minister of Education. Rodrigues has implemented numerous reforms in the Portuguese education system by, among other things, a new evaluation system for teachers, according to which in turn the salary levels are divided, changes to the status of civil servants, reducing the influence of teachers on the management of the school, while reinforcing the parents as well as the closure of many schools that have been heavily criticized by both pupils and teachers. In these numerous demonstrations demanding the resignation of the Minister. The two biggest demonstrations protesting on 8 March 2008 85000-100000 of the 143,000 Portuguese teachers and 8 November 2008 100000-120000 teachers in Portugal in the Portuguese capital Lisbon against the government reforms. The unions are protesting not against all reforms in itself, but especially against the hasty introduction of the new, designated by them as bureaucratic system.
Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues has published numerous essays and other works.