Macau Portuguese school says teachers’ sackings were unnecessary

The Portuguese School of Macau (EPM) justified the dismissal of four teachers and a technician on Sunday by saying they were no longer needed.

“EPM did not renew the special licences of four teachers and one technician because it did not consider it necessary, in accordance with the distribution of services planned for next year,” the school responded in a clarification sent to the Lusa agency.

The clarification comes as the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation (MECI) announced on Saturday that it had launched an investigation by the Inspectorate General of Education and Science (IGEC) into EPM to determine the circumstances surrounding the dismissal of four teachers and a senior technician.

“If IGEC determines that there were no grounds for the dismissal of these five workers, their replacement will not be permitted,” the agency warned in a Saturday statement sent to Lusa.

According to MECI, in early June, the management of the Portuguese School of Macau informed these specialists that it would not renew their employment contracts for the next academic year, citing management reasons.

In the Portuguese branch of EPM alone, three teachers had their contracts terminated, all of whom held permanent resident cards, the ministry said in a statement.

For EPM, the news that the Ministry of Education and Science has ordered the General Inspectorate of Education and Science to begin the investigation process “is good news and a good start to the investigations, which will certainly allow the ministry to understand the reality of the school and the problems that need to be solved.”

Meanwhile, EPM’s note on Sunday said that “about a month ago, the chairman of the board of directors of the Fundação Escola Portuguesa de Macau asked the Minister of Education, Science and Innovation to carry out a full review of the work of the Portuguese Macau Foundation.” Schools (“external assessment of schools”) for the purpose of investigating violations identified in the EMP and other situations that foreshadow illegality.”

“Since then, both the President of the Fund’s Board of Directors and the Council itself have repeatedly insisted on the need to conduct this audit, and not just an audit by the Fund’s Accounting Chamber,” the document says.

“The EPM bodies maintain restraint in regard to anything that may affect the school’s activities as well as the lives of people associated with it. There is no interest in creating noise that does not solve anything and can only cause unrest, discontent and damage the reputation of people and institutions,” the statement also said.

The EPM reminds us that a new school year is being prepared, that it is necessary to publish school timetables and the distribution of teaching services, and that it is awaiting permission from MECI to “renew the special licenses of teachers who have requested them and which the school intends to renew.”

The package also includes the school’s “special licenses for teachers whose employment was already approved by the Macau SAR authorities in May last year.” [Região Administrativa Especial de Macau]and which are aimed at filling vacancies left by teachers who have expressed a desire to leave the school.”

“MECI’s delay in confirming these approvals is beginning to worry EPM students, their parents and guardians. And, of course, also the EPM bodies,” concludes the document signed by the president of the school’s board of directors, Jorge Neto Valente.