Instituto de Odivelas

Institute of Odivelas (Prince Alfonse)

Instituto de Odivelas (Infante Dom Afonso)
Motto	Duc in altum
Type	Military academy
Established	14th January 1900
Director	Colonel António Luís Niza Pato
Students	280
Location	Odivelas, Portugal
Nickname	As Meninas de Odivelas (The Odivelas Girls)
Affiliations	Portuguese Army
Website	www.institutodivelas.com

The Instituto de Odivelas (IO) is a Portuguese military school for young girls, located at Odivelas. The present official full name of the school is Instituto de Odivelas (Infante Dom Afonso) (Portuguese for "Institute of Odivelas (Prince Alfonse)").

Academics

The IO provides basic and secondary education (5th to 12th grades), both in the boarding school and day-school regimes.

Military training is available as part of the school curriculum, but only as an optional course.

History

The institution was created in 1900, by the initiative of Prince Alfonse, brother of King Charles I of Portugal, with the objective of educating the daughters of the officers of the Portuguese Army and Navy. It was installed in the building of the former Monastery of Saint Denis of Odivelas.

Initially, it was named Instituto Infante Dom Afonso (Prince Alfonse Institute). In 1910, it was renamed Instituto Torre e Espada (Tower and Sword Institute) and, in 1911, Instituto Feminino de Educação e Trabalho (Feminine Institute of Education and Labor). In 1942, it became the Instituto de Odivelas and, in 1988, the present name was adopted.

In a controversial decision taken in 2013, the Minister of National Defense José Pedro Aguiar-Branco ordered in the closing of the IO in the end of the school year of 2014/2015. Their students are being integrated in the Military College, which was transformed from a boys' school into a mixed gender school. This decision is being opposed by the former students and parents organizations of both schools.