“The career is the backbone of the system, and everything else revolves around it. Placing it at the end is, at the very least, a structural inconsistency, and at most, a deliberate strategy to dilute its central strength,” write the teachers in an open letter.
In the letter, addressed to the Minister of Education, Science and Innovation, the leadership of the 12 union structures involved in negotiations, and parliamentary parties, the 20 signatory teachers criticize the order of topics proposed by the executive for the revision of the Teaching Career Statute (ECD).
The proposal, presented last week to the unions, essentially retains the priorities identified in the previous negotiation protocol before the Government’s collapse.
The executive intends to begin discussions with the teacher profile, followed by recruitment and career entry conditions, professional training and development, organization of teaching time, and working conditions.
In the agenda, only in the sixth point does the review of the teaching career and the remuneration statute appear, with the performance evaluation model listed last.
“The revision of the Statute cannot start with its appendices but must begin with its core identity and structure. Everything else should be discussed in light of the career, not the other way around,” argue the teachers.
In the letter, the signatories — representing the Teachers for Equity and Valorization movements, Monodocent Teachers, SOS Public School, and the Legal Association for Fundamental Rights — also criticize the oversight, accusing it of wanting to delay “the most sensitive discussion.”
“It seems evident the intention to push later what is more complex, more demanding, and with greater financial impact,” they write, urging Minister Fernando Alexandre to reconsider the order of presented priorities and calling on unions and lawmakers to “demand, clearly and unequivocally, a negotiation that begins with the teaching career.”
Among the union organizations, this is precisely one of the most contested points in the Ministry of Education’s proposal, particularly by the National Teachers’ Federation (Fenprof), which last year refused to sign the negotiation protocol.
“It would be here that we could signal to society and the country that, indeed, the valorization of the teaching career will advance and will advance with a valorization of the profession,” stated Secretary-General Francisco Gonçalves, following the meeting with the oversight.
Following Thursday’s meeting, the teachers’ representatives now have until November 13 to send counterproposals to the Ministry of Education, reconvening on November 19 to sign the negotiation protocol.
Negotiations are expected to start on December 5, with alterations to the teaching career statute potentially being approved and coming into effect as they are negotiated.
The Government aims to have the process completed by 2026, allowing the new statute to be effective in 2027.
