Primary Classes Short of a Teacher Would Be Opened to Basic Education Graduates Without a Master's, Under a Ministry Draft Put to Unions
The education ministry has put a draft to unions that would let holders of a basic education degree teach years 1 to 4 before finishing the master's the law requires. Unions call it the lesser evil as classes sit without a teacher.
Graduates with a bachelor's degree in basic education could soon teach primary school classes before they finish the master's that the law now requires. The Ministério da Educação, Ciência e Inovação (Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation) put the change to teachers' unions on Tuesday 27 October as a way to cover classes left without a teacher, unions told the Lusa news agency, as reported by RTP and Observador.
What is on the table
Education minister Fernando Alexandre presented "a proposal to amend the legislation so that holders of a licenciatura em Educação Básica (bachelor's degree in basic education) can teach in the 1.º ciclo", Manuel Teodósio of the Federação Nacional da Educação (FNE) told Lusa. The 1.º ciclo covers years 1 to 4. It covers that degree only, not graduates in other subjects.
This is a draft under negotiation, not an approved law. FENPROF's notice of the meeting says the session concerned amendments to Decreto-Lei n.º 80-A/2023, the decree that sets the training required for school-level hiring. The FNE said it received the draft on Monday and has until Friday to send its final position. The ministry wants the decree in force "as quickly as possible", Teodósio said; no start date was given.
According to the FNE, the ministry called it a "transitional measure" until enough teachers are trained, and promised to write into the decree that these recruits must complete their teacher training, which it would provide "as quickly as possible".
What the law says now
Under Decreto-Lei n.º 79/2014, a professional teaching qualification is "an indispensable condition" for teaching, and it is held by those with the relevant master's degree. For the 1.º ciclo, the entry route to that master's is the licenciatura em Educação Básica, a 180-credit degree that includes at least 15 credits of introductory classroom practice. Decreto-Lei n.º 80-A/2023 already lets schools hire graduates without the master's in many subject groups, but its list leaves out recruitment group 110, the general primary teacher.
How the unions reacted
The proposal "did not please the unions much", but "nobody opposed it", Teodósio said: faced with pupils having no classes at all, "we chose the lesser evil". Rosa Maria Sá of the Sindicato Independente de Professores e Educadores (SIPE) said teaching children to read, write and count "requires very specific methods", but "right now there is no alternative". She added that qualified primary teachers remain on the recruitment list but live far from the schools that need them.
The Federação Nacional dos Professores (FENPROF) had rejected "any so-called solution that lowers training requirements" for primary teaching on 7 October, Renascença reported. It had not published a reaction to Tuesday's draft by the time of writing.
What it means for families
The gap is sharpest around Lisbon. In the week of 8 to 14 October, FENPROF counted 902 timetables put out to school-level hiring and estimated that 64,900 pupils lacked at least one teacher. Primary teaching was the worst-hit group, with 239 timetables. The schools with most primary vacancies were in Sintra, Amadora and Silves, and Lisbon district alone had 332 open timetables. The Brief has reported on the shortage and Portugal's ageing teaching workforce and on pay discontent among school principals.
If the decree passes, a child in a class without a teacher could be taught by a basic education graduate who has not yet finished teacher training. These posts are filled by each school group (agrupamento de escolas) through its own hiring, so the school group is the place to ask about a particular class.
