«It is with great sadness and regret that I address each of you to inform you that every effort has been made to recruit professionals licensed as Early Childhood Educators throughout 2023 and 2024, which has proven to be an impossible task given the lack of professionals in this area for the amount of supply, which is both in the public and private sectors and in the social sector».
This is how the email sent by Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Albufeira to guardians begins, last Friday, August 30, informing about the closure of the Quinta do Pardais Children's Center facilities due to the lack of kindergarten teachers.
With less than two weeks to go until the start of the school year, parents say they were “completely taken by surprise” and complain about having nowhere to leave their children
In an email sent to Sul Informação, A parent even accuses the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Albufeira of “acting in bad faith towards parents”, and “didn’t even give them the chance” to enroll in other nurseries.
“We are talking about close to 100 children or more. My son is 1 and a half years old and I have nowhere to leave him. If I say goodbye alive, what will happen? St. Cso There are two more daycare centers in the same location, they even opened a new one last year and now they are doing this", reads the email sent by this mother to the editorial team.
Speaking to our newspaper, Patrícia Seromenho, ombudsman of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Albufeira, regrets what happened and guarantees that all efforts are being made to resolve the situation.
“There is a great lack of professionals in this area and without professionals it is impossible to open the daycare center,” he told Sul Informação, clarifying that the list of all children has already been sent so that places can be found in other nurseries in the municipality, given that the remaining Santa Casa nurseries are also full.
Furthermore, contact, “which did not just start now”, is maintained with the Employment Centre, IEFP and universities to try to resolve the hiring of professionals.
Regarding the date the notice was sent to parents, Patrícia Seromenho explains that it coincided with the day she received the resignation letter from the pedagogical director.
In the statement sent to parents on August 30, Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Albufeira explains that the lack of professionals is due to «the fact that in October 2023, with the decision of the Ministry of Education to recognize the service time of nursery educators as teaching service, it allowed these professionals to compete for vacancies in public education, thus solving the problem of the lack of these professionals in the public sector».
«On the other hand, the free provision and the happy daycare measure contributed to the increase in the number of daycare rooms in the country, absorbing a greater number of educators, which was not accompanied by the number of graduates leaving university, which promotes unbridled competition in the private sector», it reads.
In the case of Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Albufeira, between October 2023 and August 2024, according to the institution, there was “the voluntary dismissal of seven Kindergarten Teachers and now the technical and pedagogical director”, meaning that the administrative board cannot “assume the responsibility of starting the new school year on September 10th without Kindergarten Teachers.
In statements to the Sul Informação, Patrícia Seromenho also stressed that “everything is being done to ensure that the nursery reopens”, but, as stated in the statement sent to parents, “the recruitment process has been open at all times, with the number of applications being practically zero”.
“We work to create solutions, never constraints, and this closure is due solely and exclusively to the lack of professionals and the fact that, according to the rules, we cannot work without these staff members. Until then, I hope that all children can be readmitted to other institutions so that parents do not have to stop working,” stressed the ombudsman.
«Having exhausted recruitment efforts with the IEFP, publications on social networks and coordination with universities», the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Albufeira states that it has also requested a request for collaboration from the Albufeira City Council, the School Groups, the Regional Directorate of Education, Social Security and, through the União das Misericórdias Portuguesas, a request for help was made to the Secretary of State for Social Security.
The Quinta dos Pardais Children's Centre is a school located in the municipality of Albufeira that can accommodate children aged between 4 months and 6 years, with 108 places for nursery and 50 for pre-school.
In 2020, this Center was given as example by the Union of Portuguese Misericórdias due to the measures to be complied with, in times of pandemic, in contact with suppliers, reception and delivery of children, feeding, diaper changing, isolation room, procedures for employees and nap time.
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