For six consecutive years, the number of graduates from teacher training courses has been growing in Portugal, according to data from Pordata/Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos. However, the growth is not sufficient to compensate for retirements. Approximately two thousand new teachers graduate per year, while forecasts point to approximately three thousand annual retirements. Between 2021 and 2025, 9,466 students graduated in the field of education, 1,585 more than between 2016 and 2020.
The last year analyzed, 2025, was the one with the best performance, with 2,335 students receiving their master's degree with professional qualification for teaching. In 2024 there were 2,032 and in 2023, 1,832. Interest in the profession began to decline around 2014-2015, with in 2016 only 1,661 people graduating, well below the 5,621 who qualified in 2003, the so-called "golden year." For the first time, in the two-year period 2023/24 and 2024/25, 3,207 enrollments were recorded in the 1st year of courses leading to teaching.
Early childhood educators and teachers of the 1st and 2nd cycles represent approximately 40% of new graduates, while teachers of the 3rd cycle and secondary represent only 20%. It was in this group that the largest declines were recorded: in Physics and Chemistry, the number of graduates fell from 703 (2006-2010) to only 32 (2016-2020). However, in 2024/2025 a reversal of the trend was observed, with significant increases of 54% in Portuguese and 55% in Biology and Geology.
The Minister of Education, Fernando Alexandre, created in 2025 scholarships for students attending courses in the field of Basic Education, with scholarship holders being required to present themselves for placement in a public school in the three years following course completion. In the first phase of the National Competition for Access to Higher Education for 2026-2027, 1,350 places were opened, of which 96.9% were filled.
