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The accounting is not done, but there will be many Portuguese students, especially from the Lisbon and Tagus Valley regions and the Algarve, who started classes with gaps in the schedule. Philosophy, Mathematics, Geography, English and Computer Science / ICT are the disciplines with the most shortage of teachers.
Every Monday, new teachers hired to make up for absences or replace colleagues with a medical certificate or withdrawal, who presented the declaration for belonging to the covid-19 risk group or, even, who have retired, arrive at the schools.
So far, in the three recruitment pools made, 18,335 teachers have been placed, which is more than double last year at the same time (when 7204 were placed) and more than half of the teachers who applied this year and are part of the initial recruitment lists.
According to Manuel Oliveira, vice president of the National Association of Teachers (ANP), this increase is explained by the need for schools to respond to a greater number of medical losses (due to the pandemic and beyond), to replace teachers who have retired , and the creation of more hours that may have resulted from the breakdown of classes.
In any case, it is true that the hiring reserves, triggered to respond to the vacancies opened by educational centers on the platform of the General Directorate of School Administration (DGAE), are running out and in the short term it will be more difficult to guarantee that all students have teachers in all disciplines, according to the ANP leader, who closely follows the issue of placements and hiring.
“In some recruiting groups [ou grupos disciplinares] teachers are already missing and the hiring reserve is running out, because most of the teachers, who are from the north, were not competing for the areas where there will be more scarcity, which are Lisbon and the Tagus and the Algarve valley. Most of the hours to be covered are temporary, to make teacher substitutions, which means that it can be only one month. Who is subject to traveling 200 or 300 kilometers, looking for a house, with housing prices down there, without knowing how long they will have a job? ”, Says Manuel Oliveira, who says that, Of the approximately 3,800 teachers placed in openings in the third recruiting pool, whose lists were released on September 23, many may have declined the placement.
In that case, the vacancy remains open for the next hiring reservation. After two refusals, or when the reservation is exhausted, school groups and non-grouped schools may open their own contest to comply with that schedule or resort to overtime, with prior authorization from the Ministry of Education.
Despite these remedies, Manuel Oliveira has no doubt that the situation will get worse. “Another week or two and there will be a further shortage of teachers, especially in the south. If there were 1500 certificates per week before the pandemic, imagine now, with the pandemic. And there will be no one to replace those who leave or leave. “
This is another headache. The medical statement, which justifies the absence of a teacher who is in the covid-19 risk group, lasts 30 days and no one, not even the Ministry of Education, seems to know what happens after those 30 days. “It is a situation that we are all still to understand how it will be resolved. The pandemic has not ended, people continue to belong to the risk group after 30 days. Teleworking is not allowed. The figure of medical discharge, which is so controversial, come in, have they caused?“asks the vice president of the ANP.
The pandemic complicated everything, but for Filinto Lima, this is not responsible for the chronic lack of teachers that Portuguese schools face each year.
From the point of view of the president of the National Association of Directors of Public Groups and Schools (ANDAEP), this is a structural problem, which requires structural measures.
“In the north and in the center we do not have great difficulties, the drama is in Lisbon and the Tagus valley, where there are more schools and fewer teachers and it will be difficult to find substitute teachers. There are also disciplinary groups with a greater shortage of teachers, but this is an issue that has been emerging for years and is not just about covid “says the representative of the managerial group, who recognizes that this year the problem is getting worse and comes earlier.
“This may be related to the pandemic, but The central point is that, year after year, we are putting out fires – resorting to overtime or school hiring – and any day the fire is so great that it can no longer be put out and spread throughout the country and all disciplinary groups. “, says Filinto Lima, for whom the solution involves measures such as the revision of the so-called “brake standard” [que apesar de determinar que após três anos consecutivos com horário anual e completo, os professores efetivem, é pouco eficaz] in order to facilitate the connection of teachers with staff and with the dignity of the teaching career, in order to make it more attractive for new generations.
“Only then will the courses that guarantee access to teaching not be empty and teachers will no longer be in a situation of eternal hiring, which leads many to give up and seek alternatives to the teaching career. Only then do we not run the risk that one day it will be to use unqualified professionals to make up for the lack of teachers. “
