The education system is comprised of a compulsory nine year stage called basic education which is broken into three stages. This is followed by secondary education which normally lasts three years and finally there is higher education which comprises of universities as well as polytechnics. The country has a stunning adult literacy of 95%. The universities have a rich history with some having started as early as 1200 AD. The Portuguese universities are normally organized into faculties and schools. The higher institutions are state run and they are offered on competitive basis through a national database.

The state has several research and development institutions that it uses for research and development purposes. There are also several such units of the public universities that are involved in research. The ministry of science technology and higher education is in charge of supervision for these research activities. The public universities form the largest research efforts and their research is mainly on biosciences specifically molecular biology, nanotechnology and neuroscience. There is an Iberian institute that is funded through a joint effort between Portuguese and Spanish governments and its geared towards nanotechnology research. Portugal is a notable member of several European research entities such as the European space agency. Their aquarium is the largest in Europe as well as having several other organizations that have interest in exhibition. These exhibitionist sciences have led to the emergence of technological businesses. This has also created businesses in these technological parks in the form of legal services as well as logistics.

Portuguese life expectancy was in the year 2007 rated at 78 years. The healthcare system is a coexistence of three different systems. One is the National Health Service which is state backed. There is also a special health subsystem that is made up of schemes of certain professions. The third is the voluntary private health insurance. Through the national health services the populace gets universal health cover.  This provider of universal healthcare is funded through general state taxes while the subsystems are funded through employer’s funds and contributions. The cause of most deaths in the Portuguese population is non communicable diseases with cancer and heart diseases leading the tally. The country has the highest mortality rate for diabetes in the Euro-A zone. The infant mortality in the country has dropped significantly to as low as 3 deaths per 1000 newborns in 2009. This has been associated with the good healthcare systems in the country.

Conclusion

Portugal is a country that has enjoyed international reputation that was brought by their forays into Africa and India helping them gets good outlets for their trade items especially in their traditional crafts such as textile products. Portugal’s colonies in Africa South America and Brazil helped them stamp their position in the international scene. The political history of Portugal is not unlike several other European states with the precursor being a monarch.  The Roman empires influence on their language also helped them integrate well as a republic which also played a key role in their national integrity. The country has however not done as well in the economic front with its economic figures comparing badly with those of the other European Union members. This however has not dimmed the good image of their healthcare system which has done very well hence their life expectancy is quite good. They have also managed to take care of their population in terms of health. The current situation of Portugal is that they need to have a fresh look at their economic policies to help them raise their GDP and put them back on the path to prosper which will help them cub the increasing unemployment rates.