A few days before the start of the school year, 2,650 positions remain unfilled in schools across the country, corresponding to more than 50,000 teaching hours. Fenprof, the National Federation of Teachers, issued an alert about this situation, warning that thousands of students may start classes without a teacher.
The union federation emphasizes that the problem is due to the lack of available teachers on the market, since many teachers have already reached the limit of hours permitted or have chosen not to accept additional hours due to existing workload.
Fenprof is clear in stating that asking more hours from those already overloaded does not constitute a solution to fill this gap. The organization calls on educational authorities to find alternatives that ensure no student is left without access to education.
This situation arises in a context of persistent difficulties in hiring teachers for the Portuguese education system, with several educational establishments facing similar problems in recent years.
