As the new school year approaches, the coordinator of the teachers’ union structure, André Pestana, said today in a press conference in Coimbra that the government’s plan to increase the number of teachers could harm thousands more students, who may “end up with fewer classes.”
“The ministry’s essential strategy is to overburden teachers with more overtime hours, in an already exhausted and aging class, which could increase the number of medical leaves and result in more students without a teacher,” he warned.
According to André Pestana, the situation cannot be resolved by overburdening the professionals who are in service, but rather by recovering teachers who have left teaching and are working in other areas.
The union leader stated that recovering these professionals “might not be the solution, but it would alleviate the current situation, which is the product of decades of disregard, and would have more concrete, realistic, and sustainable effects than the Government’s plan.”
“We need to seriously invest in public services, particularly in public schools,” emphasized the leader, who would prefer to see the “exorbitant” increase in Defense spending, within the framework of NATO, used for education, health, and combating job insecurity.
STOP also expressed perplexity regarding the support announced Friday by the Ministry of Education for displaced teachers, considering the amounts “unrealistic” and stating that the measure, “which could be positive, will generate more injustices if not altered.”
For André Pestana, the way the support allocation is designed will “create a situation of favoritism among displaced teachers, and STOP does not accept this great injustice, which demotivates thousands of teachers.”