Portuguese schools returned from over 12 weeks of holidays today in habitual style: thousands of pupils are missing a full complement of teachers, janitors are few and far between and regional strikes are set to start in less than two weeks.
To make matters worse, the ‘system’ has left roughly 15,000 teachers out of work.
On the plus side, this new academic year has seen some positive changes: roughly 500,000 primary school children will receive ‘manuals’ (obligatory textbooks) free this year, saving their parents anything from 150 to 250 euros in expenditure, and class sizes are to be limited to lower numbers (24 pupils for primary years, 23-28 for the secondary stage).
The country has around 5,500 schools opening this year, and despite teacher placements being far from settled, the ‘dates’ for terms are already set in stone – with the end of year once again scheduled for mid-June, just nine months away.
President of the country’s association of school directors Filinto Lima says beyond the issues of teaching staff, the greatest problem this year will be filling vacancies for school janitors – without whom schools are ‘at risk’ of staying closed.
Rules of how many children there should be to each janitor have already ensured that one Lisbon primary school was been unable to open this morning.
