Of the some 200,000 teachers in Portugal, 53,158 are said to be working in a “precarious situation” with the union highlighting some cases of teachers in higher education receiving wages of 500 euros and contracts of only four months.
The general secretary of the National Federation of Teachers (Fenprof), Mário Nogueira, said that the adverse situation facing teachers was not only in the public sector but also in the private sector and ranged from pre-school teachers all the way up to those working in institutions of higher education.
Some of the worst cases in the profession were found among pre-school, primary and secondary education professionals he said.
Teachers Cristela Rodrigues, 35, and Estela Esteves, 47, spoke out about their working conditions and situations regarding contracts and revealed details of the precariousness of the profession: Cristela has 12 annual contracts and Estela 19 and both continue to be placed away from home, year after year, for work.
According to Mário Nogueira, there are more than nine thousand teachers in a similar position with at least ten years of service and another 300 who have more than 20 years of working experience.
But it is in higher education where there are the highest precariousness rates, according to Tiago Dias, representative of Fenprof. He said that precarious contracts and working conditions affect half of the teachers working in higher education.
Last school year, there were 7,281 teachers to teach in polytechnics and 11,735 in institutes at universities.
“The rate of precariousness in universities is 30% and in the polytechnics is over 50%,” said Tiago Dias, saying that there are, respectively, about 3,520 and 3,640 impoverished teachers.
“There are teachers who are working with contracts of three or four months which are then renewed,” he reported, adding that there are many teachers who are “earning something like 500 euros a month.”
“There’s no rules. 66% of teachers are working on green receipts “.
For Mário Nogueira, insecurity is “a problem for teachers, but it is also a social problem and not only affects the organisation of schools but also the quality of education.”