Public sector teaching jobs under threat

In September 2007, the Portuguese Ministry of Education and the teachers’ trade unions clashed over the annual nationwide application and placement process for teachers. As 44,000 teachers were not placed in jobs, the trade unions consider this as the largest collective dismissal ever. According to the ministry, the situation results from no increase of pupil numbers in the first and second cycles of basic education and an increase in the number of teaching graduates.

At the start of the new academic year in September 2007, the Portuguese Minister of Education, Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues, and the trade unions representing teachers clashed over the annual nationwide application process for teachers’ jobs in primary and secondary schools and the placement of teachers in jobs. In fact, about 44,000 of the 47,977 candidates for teaching posts were not placed in jobs for the school year 2007–2008. Among the candidates, 20,500 were teachers who had a teaching contract during the previous school year 2006–2007.

Supply versus demand for teachers

Minister de Lurdes Rodrigues stated that the supply of teachers was very high compared with the demand from the Ministry of Education (Ministério da Educação, ME) for the first and the second cycle of basic education. This is due to the fact that the population of school children is not growing in both of these cycles. According to the minister, the majority of the candidates who have not received placements for the new school year were those who applied for jobs in these two cycles of basic education. Quoting data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the minister highlighted that Portugal is the country with the lowest ratio of pupils per teacher in the first cycle of basic education, at only 11 pupils per teacher. Furthermore, the minister explained that there was only a need for teachers in other levels of education such as pre-school education, the third cycle of basic education and secondary level education.

Over the years, the higher education system has promoted the provision of a supply of teachers for those levels, without considering their employability. According to Minister de Lurdes Rodrigues, this issue had to be reconsidered in line with the needs of the ME, which were expected to be presented to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education (Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior, MCTES). According to the Observatory of Science and Higher Education (Observatório da Ciência e Ensino Superior, OCES), despite a tendency to reduce the supply of teachers, some 90,000 students qualified as teachers at the various Portuguese Higher Education Institutions between 1998 and 2005.

Conflict between trade unions and government

The minister’s arguments did not convince the trade unions representing the teachers. As the leader of the National Federation of Teachers (Federação Nacional de Professores, FENPROF), affiliated to the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores Portugueses, CGTP), Mário Nogueira accused the ME of the ‘largest collective dismissal’ ever launched in the country. Moreover, he argued that unemployment among teachers was not the result of the lack of pupils in schools, but rather the result of government policy in the public sector which aims to reduce the number of jobs in the sector. According to FENPROF, in the last two academic years, some 10,275 teachers left the education system without being replaced and the trade union federation estimates that the system might lose another 12,000 teachers over the school year 2007–2008.

Protest action by trade unions

On 3 September 2007, FENPROF launched several actions in protest against this situation, outlining the need to fight against the government’s anti-social policies, which have kept thousands of teachers out of a job. The protests against teachers’ unemployment took place in various cities around the country, including Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra, Évora, Faro, Viseu, Aveiro, Castelo Branco, Guarda, Leiria, Santarém, Portalegre and Beja. Demonstrations were organised near the employment centres, which were invaded by a large number of teachers demanding unemployment benefits. FENPROF argued that unemployment among teachers was a direct result of the government’s policy to reduce public sector jobs.

In protest against the government’s policy, and in favour of further investment in public schooling, FENPROF announced its participation, together with the CGTP-affiliated Common Front of Public Administration Unions (Frente Comum dos Sindicatos da Administração Pública, FC), in the protest that CGTP will organise on 18 October 2007. This demonstration, under the motto ‘For Social Europe – Jobs with rights’, will take place during the forthcoming European summit of heads of state and government to be held in Lisbon on 18–19 October 2007.

Maria da Paz Campos Lima and Reinhard Naumann, Dinâmia