“To date, 6,168 applications have been submitted, of which 460 were invalidated due to the distance being less than 70 kilometers. There are still 287 applications pending validation,” stated the press office of the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation (MECI) to Lusa.
According to the ministry, all requests denied so far had the same issue: “Calculations that do not meet the stipulated law,” which requires the distance between home and school to exceed 70 kilometers, measured by road.
The Jornal de Notícias reported on Monday that not all teachers were able to submit applications because the platform used for data entry either did not recognize the coordinates as valid or assigned a shorter distance to the routes.
The MECI assures that teachers “can file an appeal” and, if it turns out they are correct, “the result is changed.”
Regarding those still awaiting the validation of travel subsidies, Education Minister Fernando Alexandre assured earlier this month that payments would be made retroactively by the end of the year.
The extraordinary travel support was one of the measures introduced by the Government to address the shortage of teachers, aiming to attract educators to schools facing staff shortages.
This year, it was extended to all public schools, with additional support for those assigned to schools identified as a priority.
The support amounts vary depending on distance: It ranges from 150 euros per month for distances between 70 and 200 kilometers, up to 500 euros if the teacher is more than 300 kilometers away from home and at a school considered deficient.
