“A mountain gave birth to a shrew: not only was there no data on students without classes, but it confirmed what Fenprof has long been denouncing,” writes the federation in a statement.
The issue at hand involves the conclusions of an audit requested by the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation (MECI) following controversy over data about students without classes released last year.
According to the auditor KPMG, there are “gaps and deficiencies that undermine the reliability of data reported by the Directorate-General for Schools (DGEstE) concerning the number of students without classes in a subject, as well as the possibility of verifying this number for the academic years 2023-2024 and 2024-2025.”
Regretting that the report did not reveal the number of students without classes in recent academic years, Fenprof challenges the significant reduction claimed by the government.
“If the Ministry itself now acknowledges that there is no data to know the reality, how can it claim that the situation has changed?” question the representatives of the teachers.
On the other hand, Fenprof notes that the report does not refute the estimates made by the federation, which have repeatedly been challenged by various Ministers of Education, including Fernando Alexandre.
This weekend, Fenprof presented an estimate of the problem’s impact in the current academic year, counting “almost 1.4 million instances of students without classes in at least one subject,” numbers which include duplications of students missing different teachers or at various times.
“Fenprof considers it serious and unacceptable to continue avoiding the issue of the lack of teachers, trying to disguise it with formal exercises and inconclusive reports. What is required is transparency, responsibility, and action,” the statement adds.
Facing the pointed-out shortcomings, KPMG recommends the implementation of a system that “allows timely and centralized collection directly from schools,” through, for example, “the collection and compilation of class summaries” available in electronic form.
According to MECI, this new solution will be implemented starting next academic year to “monitor this phenomenon with rigor, credibility, and transparency” at different times and throughout the academic year.
The new model will also serve to design policies to tackle the problem, “thus guaranteeing equity in access to quality education, with better learning outcomes and a higher likelihood of success throughout the school journey.”
