The National Teachers’ Federation (Fenprof) threatened on Tuesday to go on strike at the start of the school year if “abuses and irregularities in the timetable” were not addressed, and continued district plenary sessions on September 23, starting in Aveiro and Beja.
At a press conference in Porto to sum up the 2023-2024 school year, Fenprof Secretary General Mário Nogueira announced that on September 2, the day teachers return to school, the union will carry out an “evaluation of the conditions in which the school year opens”.
If the “abuses and violations of schedules” are not eliminated and the workload of teachers is worsened, for example, with mandatory overtime work of up to 10 hours per week, strikes will continue due to overwork, non-educational component and overtime work, since this is the first academic year,” the materials provided to journalists say.
Mário Nogueira also announced that from September 23 to October 3, the union will facilitate district plenary sessions “at a rate of two per day”, always starting at 9:00 a.m., travelling around the country in alphabetical order of districts”, starting with Aveiro and Beja and ending with Vila Real and Viseu.
The plenary sessions will discuss three main topics: teacher careers, working conditions and school management.
In the area of teaching careers, the plenary session will examine and consider how the mechanism for restoring the frozen term of service during the “troika” intervention – six years, six months and 23 days – will be applied – “which will allow for careful scrutiny by teachers”.
Regarding working conditions, Mário Nogueira explained that the aim is to address the problems of scheduling, working hours, possibly in more than one school, and the lack of support for those forced to leave their area of residence.
Regarding school management, the plenary session will discuss the creation of a special statute for school principals, as well as the launch of a programme to defend democratic governance and the abolition of the municipalisation process.
On October 5, International Teachers’ Day, Fenprof will promote an action to protect and develop the profession.
Mario Nogueira said it was too early to assess the Montenegrin government on a positive or negative note, but he gave “another signal” for the restoration of teachers’ working hours.
“If we wanted to give a quick overview of what will be a more in-depth assessment of the school year [2023-2024] I would say that the school year was marked with a plus sign due to the restoration of teachers’ work experience, albeit with some shortcomings, but this is clearly a plus,” he said.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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