The STOP coordinator estimated that more than 100,000 people showed up in Lisbon this Saturday, a “sea of people” who joined a protest planned a week ago against minimum maintenance in schools.
At 3:25 p.m., the information that the Union of All Educational Professionals (STOP) had was that “there were still people in front of the Ministry of Education to fan this march”, which is heading to Belen Palace. coordinator Andre Pestana on the roof of the bus, which was located more than 1.5 kilometers from the ministry.
André Pestana highlighted the fact that “a sea of people joined the protest that was planned only seven days ago” last Friday when STOP learned that the guardianship wants to install minimum services in schools if the strikes continue into February.
In December, STOP began a series of strikes by teachers and non-teaching staff that continues to this day, with one of the largest parent associations, Confap, asking them to guarantee conditions for students to stay in schools.
Last week, the ministry requested the definition of minimum services for situations such as guaranteeing student meals or allowing students with special educational needs to remain.
Teachers demonstrating in Lisbon this Saturday oppose “deposit school” and “restaurant school” in defense of “a school where you can learn and teach.”
At the first meeting, STOP rejected the ministry’s proposal, but on Friday the arbitration board decided that the minimum services were advanced for the strikes announced by STOP in February.
In the meantime, two more strikes are taking place, one promoted by SIPE and the other by the trade union platform, which includes two of the largest trade union structures in the education sector: Fenprof and FNE.
The reasons for the protests and strikes, which began in December, are related to the Ministry of Education’s proposal for a new teacher recruitment and placement model, as well as a demand to reinstate more than six years of teachers working but seeing their careers frozen or vacancies ending for access to 5- th and 7th echelons.
Asked by Lusa about the conditions needed to end the strikes, André Pestana stressed that this is “not a STOP solution. Thousands of people who took to the streets this Saturday will be told when to stop.”
This is the third event announced by STOP since December. In addition to this march, the platform of trade union structures has planned another one for February 11th.