Fenprof rejects hiring teachers without training in the first cycle

“ Não can be worth everything to respond to the lack of teachers ", warned today the trade union federation, in response to the Minister of Education who, on Tuesday, said in parliament that some school directors have defended the possibility of hiring teachers with their own qualifications for that level of education.

In recent years, the use of teachers without pedagogical training has allowed many schools to occupy places that were unresponsive, but in the first cycle this alternative covers only the English recruitment group 120, and Fenprof argues that it remains so.

Underlining that it is precisely in that age group that “educational and scientific training and the teacher-student relationship are of particular importance”, Fenprof therefore rejects “any so-called solution that goes through lowering training requirements”.

“The first cycle cannot be treated as a level of education where, faced with recruitment difficulties, less qualified solutions can be used,” he adds.

On the other hand, teachers' representatives consider that, given the lack of teachers at that level of education, the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation should question what is driving teachers away with professional qualifications, who opt for other recruitment groups.

Among the possible reasons, they point out the specific conditions of teaching, the high school component, “the increased responsibility resulting from the prolonged stay with the same class” or professional weariness.

In the same statement, Fenprof is still concerned about the increase in the number of students per class beyond the limits established, warning that the exceptional situations foreseen cannot “be transformed as a rule, nor be used as a structural response”.

“ More students per class don't create teachers. They only transfer to schools, students and teachers the consequences of a policy that does not solve the causes of lack of teachers”, they argue.

On the contrary, it insists that the answer to the structural problem of the lack of teachers is to value the teaching profession.

“ Students are entitled to properly qualified teachers, to classes with educationally appropriate dimensions and to a teacher-student relationship that allows teaching, accompanying and learning. It is this right that must be at the heart of government decisions”, they conclude.