Fenprof says about 40 thousand students are resuming classes without all their teachers

According to calculations presented this Wednesday by the National Federation of Teachers (Fenprof), some 40,000 students resumed classes this Wednesday without all their teachers.

“At the beginning of December, there were about 32,000 students who did not have all their teachers,” said Fenprof general secretary Mario Nogueira, pointing out that 371 teachers retired in the last month of the year, and more will retire in January. 434.

According to the same source, almost 2,000 students have lost a teacher since the beginning of the year, meaning they have a subject for which they have never had classes.

“This is extremely serious because for many students it is almost impossible to complete an entire period” of three months without classes. “Obviously there is also social and financial discrimination against families, which will allow some to find compensation outside the school that the school could not provide because there were no teachers, and others do not have that opportunity.”

Mario Nogueira argued that teacher shortages are still “masked” by resources “that have not been available for decades” for non-professional teacher graduates. “The Ministry of Education has even expanded teaching opportunities for other graduates,” said Mario Nogueira.

Fenprof estimates that 200,000 students do not all have professional teachers.

According to a survey carried out by Fenprof among more than 200 group and non-group schools, the subjects with the greatest teacher shortages are information technology, Portuguese, history and mathematics (3rd cycle and secondary education).

Mário Nogueira argued that there was a solution to the problem, but it did not involve reducing the level of training. Faster than teacher training, he said, the 20,000 teachers who left teaching for their careers would be reinstated.

“This is achieved by assessing teachers’ careers” and “eliminating insecurity,” among other measures such as effectively creating incentives for teachers to be posted in areas where the cost of living is higher, such as Lisbon and the Algarve.

The data collected shows that 22.6% of responding schools were unable to staff teaching staff during the 1st period. Less than half of the schools (41.3%) managed to complete their teaching staff by the end of September.

The survey was administered at the end of the first period and 208 complete school responses were verified.

Between September 1 and December 31, 1,415 teachers retired, joining the 2,106 who retired between January and August, said Mário Nogueira.

The figures were published on the day the word of the year “Teacher” was announced, published by Porto Editora, which for Fenprof is a “recognition by the Portuguese” of the role of teachers.