Escola Azul Portugal

Escola Azul is an educational programme implemented by the DGPM – Direção-Geral de Política do Mar (Directorate-General for Maritime Policy), with the mission of promoting Ocean Literacy in Portuguese schools, from pre-school to secondary level, and engaging students and school communities around Ocean-related issues — raising awareness, mobilising action, and changing behaviours in response to the climate and environmental challenges facing our Ocean today.

The programme works to lower the barriers to implementing Ocean Literacy in schools, building synergies between the educational community, local communities and partners in the maritime sector. It fosters coordination among institutions active in marine education, ensuring coherent and harmonised educational strategies, and promotes the value of maritime professions — both traditional and emerging — contributing to the consolidation of Portuguese maritime identity and culture.

Projects developed by Escola Azul schools are structured around key thematic areas: the protection of coastal and marine ecosystems; combating marine pollution; scientific research and citizen science; the blue economy; food sustainability and gastronomy; and active citizenship.

Sustained by a broad network of partners — municipalities, universities, the maritime industry, NGOs, scientific institutions and local operators — the programme delivers hundreds of marine education activities each year, building collaborative ecosystems rooted in local communities.

A world pioneer in ocean literacy education, Portugal's model is recognised by UNESCO and today serves as a reference for similar initiatives worldwide. Escola Azul currently counts more than 600 certified schools and 130,000 students, including schools in CPLP member countries — Angola, Cabo Verde, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Timor-Leste — strengthening bilateral cooperation and consolidating a shared knowledge network across Portuguese-speaking nations.

The programme is led nationally by the Escola Azul National Coordination team at DGPM, which oversees school certification, network monitoring and international cooperation, ensuring that Ocean Literacy remains a shared, evolving commitment across Portugal's school communities and beyond.