The government wants to attract immigrant teachers and bring back pensioners

Education Minister Fernando Alexandre presented the government’s plan to address the teacher shortage. The Minister indicated a clear goal: to reduce by 90% the number of students not attending classes in at least one subject at the end of the 1st period, which stood at 20,887 in 2023. The announced plan has a cost of 20 million euros.

To achieve this goal, he proposes measures such as speeding up teacher replacement, including having “an English teacher teach history classes” while the history teacher is sick.

The government will also “encourage recently retired teachers to return to school” by receiving €1,657 gross, and will “extend the active life of teachers who want to continue teaching until they are 70” by receiving an additional “€750 gross”. .

It will also “try to bring back” teachers who have given up teaching in recent years, and promises to “recognize the qualifications of immigrant graduates who were teachers in their countries of origin so that they can teach in Portugal.”

Fernando Alexandre also said that in order to attract candidates for higher education, “2 thousand annual scholarships will be paid for attending courses in the teaching specialty.” Some of the measures apply across the entire area, but 51 schools have been identified where the problem is worse and where specific measures will be taken. One involves hiring 140 senior technicians to support classroom management. 30 thousand overtime hours will also be allowed, which represents an increase of 20% and will cost one million euros per year. “This will attract teachers to areas of greatest need. Recruitment of teachers will take place daily, not weekly as it is now.

The government also proposes to replace a teacher who has sick leave for the entire academic year by the end of the year, and not initially for three months, as is happening now. Finally, statutory mobility will be reduced by 25% in the most scarce groups of teachers.