Portugal's School Principals Are the Least Satisfied With Their Pay in the OECD's TALIS Survey, and Fewer Than One in Ten in State Schools Is Content

Only 12.7 percent of Portugal's lower secondary school principals say they are satisfied with their salary, the lowest share of any education system in the OECD's Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), against an OECD average of 49 percent. The figures come from The Value of School Principals in TALIS 2024, a 151-page OECD report published on Monday 26 October and first reported in Portugal by Lusa, through RTP and Observador.

Slovenia, at 12.8 percent, is the only system close to Portugal. In state schools alone the Portuguese share falls to 8.7 percent, against 51.2 percent for principals of private schools. The OECD notes that Denmark pays its principals about the same multiple of a teacher's salary as Portugal does, yet three in four Danish principals are content with their pay.

Worse than in 2018

The trend runs against the rest of the OECD. In 2018, 27.2 percent of Portuguese lower secondary principals were satisfied with their pay; across the 24 OECD systems with data for both rounds, satisfaction rose by about 6 points in the same period. In upper secondary schools the Portuguese share fell from 35.9 to 22.4 percent. Satisfaction with other terms of employment also dropped, from 39.7 to 30.6 percent, against an OECD average of 66 percent.

Yet the job itself is not the problem. Almost 99 percent of Portuguese principals say that, all in all, they are satisfied with their work, above the OECD average of 94 percent.

Older, more stressed, buried in paperwork

• Age: Portugal's lower secondary principals are 56.2 years old on average, up from 52.1 in 2013 and 53.7 in 2018. The OECD average is 52.5.
• Stress: 84 percent report stress "quite a bit" or "a lot" in their work, against 61 percent across the OECD.
• Administration: 90 percent name too much administrative work as a source of stress (OECD: 69 percent).
• Time in classrooms: only 8 percent say they often observed lessons in the previous year, against 49 percent on average and the lowest share in the survey, just below France (10 percent).
• Parents: the share of principals who say parents are closely involved in school activities fell from 65 to 35 percent between 2018 and 2024, one of the steepest declines in the survey.

The report notes that relatively low pay may discourage experienced teachers from taking on leadership roles, with consequences for who runs schools in future. The same pressures appear in the teaching workforce itself: Portugal's teachers are among the OECD's oldest and least content with their pay, as we reported in September from Education at a Glance.

What happens next

According to Lusa, Education Minister Fernando Alexandre has said he intends to bring in a new statute for school directors by the end of the year, with pay rises, more management autonomy and a new way of electing directors that gives teachers more say. Pay and conditions in schools remain contested on several fronts, from the teacher relocation payments that expire in July 2027 to this month's school support staff strike.

The survey was carried out in 2024, when 280,000 teachers in 55 education systems gave their views on the leadership of 17,000 principals. Across all of them, the OECD says, excessive administrative work remains principals' most frequently reported source of stress, and it presents support for school leaders as "an investment in the schools they lead and the communities they serve".