The largest teachers’ union has decided to send a letter to Minister Fernando Alexandre following his statements to more than two hundred students at Dr. Joaquim de Carvalho high school in Figueira da Foz, where he argued that participating in protests diminishes their aura.
The minister emphasized that he was not criticizing teachers who engaged in protests, acknowledging that teachers “were very mistreated in Portugal for too long,” both professionally and socially, but Fenprof was displeased with his remarks.
Fenprof criticized Fernando Alexandre’s statements “in front of an audience full of children and young people,” noting that teachers “have had no shortage of reasons to protest.”
Additionally, as stated in the letter accessed by Lusa, the teachers’ struggles “have always aimed at progress: for better living and working conditions, social and material appreciation of the profession, stability, increased investment in Education and the realization of a democratic, quality, inclusive public school for all.”
Fenprof also recalled that during the Estado Novo, when “it was forbidden and even very dangerous to do so,” many teachers and educators took risks and “never lost their ‘aura’ or diminished their professional and citizen status.”
In the letter, the federation urges the minister to address the “prolonged absence of structural solutions” that hinder the appreciation of the profession and exacerbate the shortage of teachers in schools.
Fenprof also highlights in the letter the fact that Fernando Alexandre is part of a government that “has already confirmed its intention to attack other fundamental rights,” such as the exercise of the right to strike.
