The Government wants to allow graduates in Basic Education to teach in the first cycle of primary education before completing their master's degree or in-service teacher training, in a move aimed at addressing the shortage of teachers leaving pupils without classes, trade unions have revealed.
The Minister for Education, Science and Innovation, Fernando Alexandre, presented teachers' unions with “a proposal to amend legislation to allow graduates in Basic Education to teach in the first cycle”, Manuel Teodósio, from the National Education Federation (FNE), told Lusa.
The proposal “was not particularly well received” by the unions, but “nobody opposed it”, Manuel Teodósio added. He explained that the measure aims to address the shortage of first-cycle primary school teachers, which has left many pupils without lessons, particularly in the Lisbon area.
“No union opposed the document because we are between a rock and a hard place: faced with the choice between pupils having no lessons at all and pupils being taught by professionals who want to become teachers but have not yet completed their pedagogical training, we are opting for the lesser evil,” he explained.
The Independent Union of Teachers and Educators (SIPE) also described the situation as being “between a rock and a hard place”.
Teaching children to read, write and count “requires very specific methodologies”, but “at the moment, there is no alternative”, Rosa Maria Sá, from SIPE, stressed at the end of a meeting held at the ministry today.
The SIPE representative pointed out that there are still first-cycle primary school teachers on the recruitment list, but they live a long way from the schools where they are needed. “The incentives for them to work in regions where the cost of living is very high severely limit the number willing to accept positions at these schools,” she said.
The Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation (MECI) stressed that the legislative amendment, which will allow graduates to teach before completing their master's degree and teaching placement, is a “temporary measure” until schools train the teachers they need.
Manuel Teodósio added that the ministry had committed to explicitly stating in the legislation that these teachers would be required to complete pedagogical training. “The ministry has pledged to provide this training to these professionals as quickly as possible so that they can obtain their teaching qualifications,” he said.
Teacher shortages at other levels of education have already led the ministry to review training requirements, allowing people with academic qualifications in a different field to teach. One example would be an engineer teaching Mathematics.
Regarding the changes now announced for the first cycle, the FNE said it only received the legislative amendment proposal on 26 October and therefore has until 30 October to submit its final position to the ministry.
The ministry intends for the legislation to enter “into force as quickly as possible to solve the problem of pupils without teachers”, Manuel Teodósio said.