The Ministry of Education presented to unions this Wednesday the general outline of a proposal to change the paradigm of hiring teachers, replacing the different modalities with a continuous external competition throughout the year.
The plan, still with many loose ends, was presented by minister Fernando Alexandre to the teachers’ unions, at a work meeting as part of the review of the in which the Government wants to include legislation relating to the recruitment and management of teachers.
According to the governor, the The idea is to replace the current teacher hiring mechanisms – the annual external competition, recruitment reserves and school hiring – for a “teachers competition in a completely new way”.
Speaking to the Lusa agency, Fernando Alexandre explained that this is a continuous external competitiontaking place throughout the academic year, which will make it possible to immediately fill vacancies that arise, resulting, for example, from retirements or medical leaves.
The model proposed by the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation (MECI) also aims to allow candidates to present themselves for the competition during the academic yeara solution that Fernando Alexandre says resolves the exclusion of recent graduates who, currently, were excluded from the annual external competition because they still did not meet the requirements on that date.
“We do not have a teacher hiring process that is agile enough to ensure that we can quickly identify needs and match those needs with interested candidates”, explained the minister, arguing that the proposed alternative will make it possible to do so.
Teacher placement will continue to respect the national graded list
According to the governor, of the current model, only the internal competition remainsmobility for teachers on staff who want to change schools, which will be brought forward so that teachers already know, before the end of the school year, where they will be placed in September.
Fernando Alexandre also guaranteed that the Teacher placement will continue to respect the national graded list – based on length of service and classification in the teaching qualification course – and added that no new extraordinary external competitions should be held, as teachers with their own qualifications (without pedagogical training) will also be able to apply for the new continuous external competition.
O MECI recognizes that there are still many details to be definedbut hopes to conclude the discussion by June, so that the new rules can be implemented when hiring teachers for the 2027/2028 school year.
Among the doubts is, for example, the type of contract under which teachers will be hired, since the Government wants to make vacancies as attractive as possibleguaranteeing them stability when the permanent needs of schools are at stake, while at the same time guaranteeing respect for professional graduation and the absence of overtaking.
“How do you reconcile these two paradigms?”
This is precisely one of the risks that most worries the unions, who say they reached the end of the meeting with the supervisory authority without answers to many of the questions.
“We tried to understand what kind of bidding procedures these are, what their connection is with the personal maps, what the pedagogical zone tables look like… Ultimately, we have a lot of doubts”, summarized one of the general secretaries of the National Federation of Teachers, José Feliciano Costa, highlighting, on the other hand, that there is still a lack of measures that enhance careers.
For the Pedro Barreiros praised the intention to speed up the placement of teachers, but expressed concern about the intention, conveyed by the minister, to end internal mobility.
Júlia Azevedo, from the Independent Union of Teachers and Educators (SIPE), considered that the general lines are positive, but warned of the need to guarantee respect for professional graduation.
“The Government does not want to create such overruns in professional graduation, on the one hand, but on the other hand it wants to retain teachers as vacancies open up. How do these two paradigms be reconciled? It’s difficult, isn’t it?”, he highlighted.
The unions now have until April 10th to send counterproposals, with a new meeting scheduled for the 20th.
