At a press conference following the Council of Ministers meeting, António Leitão Amaro explained that the competition will be launched “as quickly as possible,” followed by “intense weeks of negotiation” with the sector’s trade unions.
For now, needs are still being identified, but the minister stated that vacancies will be made available for subjects and schools with the greatest shortage of teachers, in the regions of Lisbon and Tagus Valley, Alentejo, and Algarve.
The new competition seeks to address the shortcomings identified in the extraordinary recruitment process carried out by the previous administration. “We found 3,000 schedules without assigned teachers, 19,000 teachers without placement, and 1,600 zero schedules (i.e., teachers without hours), at least 75% in the Northern region,” reported António Leitão Amaro.
In addition to the new competition, the Council of Ministers also approved a proposal, which will also be negotiated with teachers’ unions, to create support for displaced teachers placed more than 70 kilometers from home and in schools with greater shortages.
The value of this support will vary between 70 euros and 300 euros, depending on the distance. “To simplify, 70 euros for those who are 70 kilometers away, 300 euros for those who are 300 kilometers away,” the minister summarized.
“The scale of the problem we encountered and what we discovered about the partially flawed design of that competition requires increasingly additional measures to solve the problem. Unfortunately, we cannot solve it immediately,” he emphasized.
After announcing a set of proposals in June to address the shortage of teachers, which have already been negotiated, the executive today approved the decree-law that implements the measures, such as hiring retired teachers.
As part of the More Classes + Success Plan, in addition to retired teachers, who will receive additional income on top of their retirement, teachers who wish to continue teaching after reaching retirement age will receive an additional remuneration of 750 euros.
The Government also wants to have 500 doctoral scholarship holders in schools, who will be able to accumulate up to 10 teaching hours, and will award 500 scholarships for professional qualification for teaching to masters and doctoral graduates.
The plan also provides for the allocation of 2,000 scholarships for students entering undergraduate and master’s degrees in Teaching or Educational Sciences.
