News of this event began to circulate in several education groups and blogs at the beginning of the week: “The March for Education will occur on February 17, starting in Largo do Rato, at 2 p.m., and will end in front of the Assembleia da República”.

Paulo Fazenda is one of around 20 teachers from schools of the south of the country, who is organising the protest that aims to draw attention to the problems in public schools, old problems, which have not received solutions from the resigning government and which should be a priority for the next.

“It’s painful that we are witnessing the continuous degradation of public schools and nothing is being done”, shared a teacher from Santa Maria da Feira, also explaining the march is intended as a “last cry of warning” before the legislative elections, scheduled for March 10.

“Election season is the time to demand a commitment from all political parties regarding their priorities for education in the next legislature”, the teacher stressed.

The main problems he refers to are not new, in fact, they attest to the issues of the protest of school professionals last year, when strikes lasted for several months and tens of thousands of people joined in various demonstrations.

Paulo Fazenda insists on the full recovery of frozen service time, the review of salaries, the retirement regime and the sickness mobility regime, in addition to teachers’ working conditions.

“In the political debate that will take place until the elections, education must be one of the topics in focus”, he stated, arguing that the parties must assume their educational policies, priorities and commitments towards public schools.