“The lack of teachers is one of the most serious problems,” acknowledged Fernando Alexandre, Minister of Education, Science, and Innovation, in his opening speech today at the parliamentary committee evaluating the State Budget proposal for 2026.
Fernando Alexandre highlighted the shortage of teachers and the number of schedules without assigned educators in his presentation of the 2025 budget proposal. It anticipates a “6% increase” in funding for education, higher education, and science, translating to “an additional 621 million euros” compared to the current year’s expenditure.
“As of October 24, there were 1,240 schedules unfilled, with 480 school groups having at least one unfilled schedule, and 12 groups having 10 or more unfilled schedules”, revealed Fernando Alexandre, acknowledging that these figures might already be outdated.
The 1,240 teacher vacancies are “concentrated” in Greater Lisbon, Setúbal Peninsula, and parts of Alentejo and Algarve. The proposed budget for next year includes “an additional 118 million euros” to combat the teacher shortage.
To attract teachers, the minister highlighted ongoing measures, such as travel support for those placed far from home or a new extraordinary external competition for schools struggling to recruit teachers.
Additional measures mentioned by Fernando Alexandre include paying for extraordinary teaching service and allowing teachers to extend their careers beyond retirement age.
The minister recognized that, among “more than 128,000 teachers (in schools), it’s natural that some schedules remain unfilled; the issue is the speed at which [each schedule] is filled”.
He emphasized that the number of open schedules does not indicate how many students are actually without classes.
“Many of us would like to know the number of students without classes. The system isn’t yet equipped to answer that. It will be. We must have absolutely accurate information,” stated Fernando Alexandre.
