Fenprof disagrees with the study, which concludes that the difficulty of replacing absent teachers is a leading cause of student absenteeism, recalling that the school year began with a shortage of teachers in schools.
“At the beginning of the year, on September 1, there was a shortage of teachers in schools. I can say that there are still teachers on the list for these subjects, but these are teachers who live in Viana do Castelo, Braga, Vila Real and who have schedules in Lisbon or Algarve, where it is impossible to place them because they don’t even have the salary that allows them to do this,” Fenprof leader Mário Nogueira told Lusa.
The person in charge was reacting to a study by Edulog (a think tank of the Fundação Belmiro de Azevedo specialized in the field of education) and coordinated by ISCTE, according to which there is no shortage of teachers for permanent and annual internships, but rather the difficulties in replacing teachers are low.
Noting that he has not yet read the study, Mario Nogueira says he disagrees with this principle.
“If this were so, the shortage would only occur during the year, and this is not true,” said Mário Nogueira, recalling that at the moment the number of students without all their teachers is between 40,000 and 45,000, “much less than at the beginning of the year, in which it exceeded 100,000.”
The official highlighted the use of teachers without professional qualifications to show that teacher shortages are being “masked” by these hires.
“The shortage of teachers is such that this year we already have more than 3,100 teachers without professional training, without pedagogical education, hired only in the first period, which is the highest figure in the entire millennium,” he said.
Mário Nogueira acknowledges that the teaching staff is very old and that this contributes to the increasing number of teachers suffering from illness, but he recalled the records of retirement.
Last year, that number reached 3,521, and more than 5,000 teachers could retire this year, he said. According to the person in charge, these outflows were not offset by the same number of inflows, which unbalanced the balance sheet.
The coordinator of the study “Demographic and labor realities of public education teachers in Portugal 2016/2017 – 2020/2021” in statements by Luse recalled that in various national competitions there is always an oversupply of candidates for vacancies that open up and that the problem of students not attending classes becomes More serious, when a teacher falls ill, this idea is opposed by Mario Nogueira, who says that if this were the case, the year would start without a shortage of teachers in schools.
ISCTE researchers estimate that to put an end to student absenteeism, a stipend for about 20,000 teachers needs to be created to replace absent teachers.
In a conversation with Lusa, the Fenprof leader said that the proposal for a scholarship for full-time teachers to replace absent teachers is positive, but remembers: “for it to be implemented, there must be teachers.”
“We do not have teachers who can meet the needs that schools launch on the platform every week (…). Schools cannot hire these teachers even if they use unprofessional teachers,” he added.
He also recalled that there is already a reserve, which is called a recruiting reserve: “This is a reserve where teachers are included by subject (…) and schools go there to hire when the time comes when they need a teacher.”
“The big problem with this reserve is that there are a number of disciplines in which no one else is available,” he insists.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal

I’m Dave Martin, and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. As a part of my work, I write for 24 News Reporters, covering mostly sports-related topics. With more than 5 years of experience as a journalist, I have written numerous articles on various topics to provide accurate information to readers.