FENPROF, the national federation of teachers, has accused the government today of ‘kicking the can down the road’ when it comes to problems in state-funded education – recalling that “thousands of teachers” are close to retirement age (thus problems will only amplify unless measures are taken).
Said FENPROF secretary-general Francisco Gonçalves: “We are talking about a ministry that has had two years in office and up till now has simply kicked the can down the road. The lack of teachers has increased. We are going to have another year in which, very probably, more than 3,000 teachers will retire”.
Gonçalves was talking to Lusa in Porto where ‘the national caravan of teachers’ with the slogan “We are teachers and educators, preparing the future” took to the road at 8 o’clock this morning.
For the next 10 days, the caravan will travel all 18 districts of the mainland, the nine islands of the Azores and eight municipalities of Madeira, to distribute flyers and posters describing teachers main concerns and demands.
Today, more than a dozen teachers with t-shirts emblazoned with the words: “We demand recognition now” began the awareness exercise, distributing flyers with the phrase “Teachers are missing — and this is increasingly being felt in schools and the lives of many families”.
The same flyers are due to be sent to the Ministry of Education.
“Although the Minister of Education says that improving the status of the teaching profession is important and currently under review, to date there has not been a single concrete measure that allows us to say: this measure is better than what already exists,” Gonçalves stressed – insisting the way in which teachers are treated is the single most important problem in state education.
As he explained, in the coming years, there will be 3,000 to 4,000 teachers annually meeting conditions for retirement, while the number of students obtaining bachelor’s and/ or master’s degrees in teaching “is manifestly inferior (…) The problem is growing. And what has the Ministry done? Nothing, or very little,” he concludes.
This new initiative comes on the day political parties are sharpening their knives for the first ‘political debate in parliament’ since the country was assailed by a ‘carousel of storms’ that has caused (according to latest calculations) around €5 billion in damages – principally to homes, businesses and national infrastructure.
It is not just the education ministry that MPs will be criticising today.
Source material: Lusa/
