The Fenprof is set to submit a formal request to the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation today for the initiation of negotiations regarding the organization of the upcoming academic year. This demand is underscored by the legal obligation of the authorities to ensure this right for trade union organizations, the federation stated in a communiqué.
A year ago, the government, for the first time, approved a school calendar spanning four years, from 2024-2025 to 2027-2028. According to the decree, the next school year is scheduled to commence between September 11 and 15.
Although the dates have been finalized, Fenprof seeks to discuss the organization of the following year and criticizes the establishment of a quadrennial school calendar.
The union structure justifies that the document “contains sensitive matters for the professional and personal organization of teachers’ lives, particularly their working hours” and “unjustifiably overburdens the younger children (…) with excessive prolongation of curricular activities.”
Like the school year now nearing its end, classes will conclude at the end of June for preschool and 1st cycle students, two weeks later than other years without national exams.
In Fenprof’s view, school calendars are subject “to dynamics that do not align with the students’ learning rhythms.”
Conversely, the federation highlights that the beginning of the school year demands precise planning and notes that 2025-2026 is already being prepared by schools under several constraints, such as the lack of teachers and the impact of the 4th and 6th-grade learning monitoring tests, which Fenprof claims have disrupted the regular functioning of school activities and burdened both teachers and students.
The teachers’ representatives further argue that longstanding issues, related to schedules, non-teaching work, and excessive bureaucracy, are carried over to the upcoming year.
“For all these reasons, demanding the negotiation of the school year’s organization is not just a legal imperative. It is also an essential condition to ensure respect for schools’ autonomy, promote better teaching and learning conditions, and guarantee a balance between the professional and personal lives of educators and teachers,” they conclude.
