The Minister of Education, Fernando Alexandre, acknowledges that he doesn't know how many students will start the school year without a teacher, admitting that this is a particularly difficult reality in two areas of the country. The situation is linked to a structural problem in teacher training.
Fernando Alexandre explained that around four thousand teachers retire each year. However, fewer than two thousand new teachers are graduating from universities. This imbalance between departures and entries into the profession is the source of the current teacher shortage.
The government official acknowledges that this is an issue that particularly affects some regions of the country, although he did not specify which ones. The lack of teachers threatens to compromise the start of the school year for many students.
