Stop this Monday expressed “deep regret that the President of the Republic wants to be associated with one of the biggest attacks on the teacher’s class” by introducing a new competitive regime and “once again reaching out to the government.”
“We deeply regret that the President of the Republic wants to be involved in one of the biggest attacks on the public school teaching class, which we know will fail very significantly with this decree-law,” André Pestana, coordinator. Union of All Educators (STOP) in response to the adoption by the President of the Republic of a new legal diploma for the employment of teachers.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa announced this Monday that he has made the diploma public despite not accepting his proposals on the matter, arguing that he does not want to “postpone the expectations of about eight thousand teachers.”
For André Pestana, there is a “very significant setback” for teachers who are already part of the staff, who may now be forced to teach in more than one group of schools, which may be distant from each other and have different educational projects, but also for teachers. contract workers, with many years of teaching experience in some cases, and who, under the new rules when they are mandatory, may be forced to apply to schools across the country, regardless of their personal and marital status.
“With this measure, the President of the Republic (PR) will clearly become part of the problem, he will further exacerbate the devaluation and shortage of teachers,” the Stop leader criticized.
“Many colleagues have told us that if this Decree-Law were passed, they would seriously consider leaving the teaching profession, and for this reason we deeply regret that PR is part of the problem and not the solution, and once again along with this Government with yet another attack on the teaching profession and therefore on public schools,” he added, warning that “due to this measure, there will be even more students without teachers in the coming years.”
Emphasizing that the union “did everything” to avoid passing the law, writing to Marcelo Rebel de Sousa, organizing demonstrations among other public actions, André Pestana said that “it is a great disappointment, a great sadness to see that the President of the Republic once again extends his hand to the Government and does not reach out to the teachers.”
In a note to the resolution, the head of state indicates that “several proposals were made for the current diploma, as well as a specific proposal for the mandatory assignment of teachers, in the sense of making it more stable, without introducing additional inequalities to the existing ones.”
“Although neither the submitted proposal, nor another more minimalist one, was approved, at a certain point, proposed in dialogue with the President of the Council of Ministers, the President of the Republic considers it necessary to promulgate the present legal framework,” he adds.
Marcelo Rebelo de Souza states that he has decided, “in view of the publication by the government in Diário da República of Decree No. 111-A/2023 of April 26, which opens the competition for only two thousand teachers, for next year, based on the current wording of the law and because the new law has not been adopted and published and, therefore, has not yet entered into force.
On the other hand, he argues that “postponing the adoption of the law even within the statutory period of 40 days ending May 15, or not passing this law in this context, would mean postponing the expectations of about eight thousand teachers, in addition to being left without the consecration by law of some of their specific requirements adopted by the Government.
Regarding the ongoing strike in the schools, which aims to keep fighting to restore time still frozen for teachers, André Pestana told Lusa that he is still collecting commitment data.
But he said he already had an indication that there were schools where they didn’t do benchmarks on Friday.
The strike, which is subject to benchmarking and does not require minimum services, began on Friday and will last until the 11th.
Speaking about the consolidated balance sheet for the next few days, André Pestana added that the union expects “commitment to strike will increase” in the next few days, which has yet to be quantified.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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