A year after a plan with 15 measures was announced to reduce the number of students without classes, the school reopened in September, revealing that the problem persisted: 78% of public schools lacked teachers, according to the ministry’s calculations.
Unions claimed the situation worsened this year, pointing to more than 100,000 affected students, a figure disputed by the authorities who emphasized that school principals have tools to ensure classes are not left without teachers.
However, both unions and the government agree on one point: The aging of the teaching workforce has led to a wave of retirements at a much faster pace than the arrival of younger teachers, as the profession is considered unattractive, according to unions calling for more benefits.
Last summer, the Ministry of Education presented the “+ Aulas + Sucesso” plan, which offered better conditions for those delaying retirement, as well as for those willing to return to schools or start teaching.
In the north of the country, there are available teachers, but the issue is mainly concentrated in schools in the regions of Lisbon, Setúbal, Alentejo, and Algarve.
The government offered a travel subsidy for teachers working more than 70 kilometers from home and launched an extraordinary contest to hire around 1,800 teachers in the most disadvantaged regions.
A month after the school year began, a new survey by the ministry revealed that the problem persisted. According to Minister Fernando Alexandre, more than half of the school groups were still looking for teachers.
In parliament, during the discussion of the 2026 State Budget proposal, Fernando Alexandre acknowledged this is “one of the most serious problems” of his ministry and promised to “spend an additional 118 million euros” to combat the teacher shortage.
The government is willing to spend 24.3 million euros to attract teachers on the verge of retirement, and nearly a thousand teachers accepted to postpone retirement and continue teaching this year alone.
The Ministry of Education also plans to spend 23 million euros on all teachers assigned far from home and another 56 million for those teaching in schools where hiring is especially difficult.
The executive promised to develop a new information system to determine how many students are effectively without classes, although it is not yet completed despite the authorities stating it would be operational by the end of the year.
The latest study, released in October, indicates that the problem may persist: Over the next decade, schools will need an additional 39,000 teachers, but the current supply will only ensure 20,000 new graduates, according to the “Study of Teaching Needs Diagnosis from 2025 to 2034”.
To counter this scenario, the ministry established agreements with several higher education institutions to train new teachers, allocating 27 million euros until 2031.
Minister Fernando Alexandre expressed confidence that attracting young people to the profession will not be difficult: “This career is the most important that exists (…) without it, there are no other professions. This is the mother of all professions. Devaluing this profession is a mistake that costs dearly.”
However, only 9% of Portuguese teachers feel valued by society, significantly below the OECD average (22%), according to the largest international survey on teachers – the “TALIS 2024 – Teaching and Learning International Survey”, which this autumn revealed that Portuguese teachers are among the happiest in the OECD but also among those who complain the most about salaries and work contracts.
