Fenprof: "A darker picture" than last year

The National Federation of Teachers (Fenprof) estimates that if classes were to start this Thursday there would be around 400,000 students without all their assigned teachers, a “bleaker picture” than that experienced last year.
"Compared to last year, at this moment, the situation is bleaker; we are in a much worse situation when it comes to teacher shortages," warned José Feliciano Costa, secretary general of Fenprof, in statements to Lusa three weeks before the start of classes for primary and secondary school students.
Last year, “there were 164 time slots without assigned teachers, and now there are more than three thousand,” said the union leader, based on data released last week by the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation (MECI) on the competitions that placed almost 19 thousand teachers, but left 3,152 time slots unfilled.
According to Feliciano Costa, many of these schedules no longer have candidates and, “if classes started today, there would be more than 400,000 students without teachers.”
However, until classes begin, schools will be able to hire through recruitment reserves. But here too, the union leader believes that "the situation is more complicated," because there are 2,566 fewer teachers available in the recruitment reserves . "Last year, we had over 19,000, and this year, it's around 16,000," he said.
Fenprof warns of a generalized reduction in candidates in most recruitment groups, reaching “ particularly alarming values ” in the 1st cycle of Basic Education (minus 27.7%), among 1st cycle English teachers (minus 36.8%) and those who teach Portuguese and English (minus 42.3%).
There are also far fewer teachers of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Geography or Special Education, according to the Fenprof list, which also includes English and Portuguese teachers.
In educational establishments where schedules remain unfilled, principals may also move towards hiring schools, which means having non-professional teachers teaching , an option that has become increasingly common in recent years.
"The situation is worsened by the residual intake of new teachers, which remains insufficient to offset the 2,054 retirements recorded this year as of August 31st. This is more than last year," lamented Feliciano Costa, concluding that "the '+ Classes + Success' plan didn't work last year and will continue to fail this year. There are no effective, substantive measures in sight to solve the problem ."
The Fenprof general secretary also warned of errors in the placement competition for teachers who changed their Pedagogical Zone Framework (QZP) but made a mistake when filling out their application, an error that was not identified by the system, which validated incorrect applications.
“These situations, until corrected, create great instability and anguish for teachers and their families, especially when they involve significant time away from home,” warns the largest union representing the class.
The National Education Federation (FNE) also said this Thursday that it had already received several requests for support from teachers who reported errors when filling out applications for Internal Mobility .
"These oversights, which in many cases also stem from limitations of the competitive system/platform itself, cannot, under any circumstances, result in penalties for teachers," argues the FNE, asking the regulatory authority to quickly correct the errors and issue clear guidelines to all schools and services to ensure that no teacher will be disadvantaged.
“In a context of a serious shortage of teachers and given the urgency of preparing and organizing the 2025/2026 school year, this situation takes on special relevance, and could compromise the stability and normal functioning of schools at the beginning of September,” warns the FNE.
observador