Africa-Press – Cape verde. Young people want to leave the country after finishing high school, but they lack information about what they will find in the host country, in this specific case, Portugal. This is the conclusion of a research project conducted between 2022 and 2024 in secondary schools in Cape Verde, which analyzed the expectations and intentions of 12th-grade students regarding continuing their studies.
This information was provided by Katia Batista, director of the Centro Nova África in Lisbon, during the presentation of the research results.
“What we feel is that young people have strong aspirations to leave the country after completing high school, many of them to study at university in Portugal, but sometimes there is a lack of information. Young people want to leave the country, but they don’t know exactly what they will find; sometimes they don’t have the most accurate information possible about what type of studies or courses they should pursue, nor about what they will encounter in terms of daily expenses and the support they will receive,” she said.
The study suggests creating an information program to inform young people about what they will find in Portugal and where they can obtain financial support. Katia Batista adds that she has been working with the Portuguese Embassy on the visa process, ensuring that students arrive on time and without constraints when they study in Portugal.
“So, what we suggest and will present is that, eventually, here in Cape Verde, we can support these young people in their decisions through an information program. An information program that gives them precise information about what they will learn when they go to Portugal, what the different courses are, the different educational institutions, what they gain from it, and then the day-to-day aspects: where they can get financial support, what the expenses are when they travel. We often find that there are young people who leave Cape Verde to study in Portugal, but because they don’t have this information, they then lack the necessary conditions for success. We have also been working with the Embassy in Portugal to ensure that the visa process allows these young people, when they decide to study, to arrive on time and thus have the best conditions for success,” he emphasized.
The research project, conducted between 2022 and 2024 in 49 high schools in Cape Verde, reached more than 9,000 students. The study analyzed the expectations and intentions of 12th-grade students regarding continuing their studies and followed their paths, both in Portugal and Cape Verde, to understand the challenges of academic and social transition.
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