The Ministry of Education will propose to trade unions that pre-school and 1st cycle teachers can stop teaching from the age of 60, announced Minister João Costa.
The intention was presented this Wednesday, April 5th, to the trade union organizations in a negotiation meeting on teachers' length of service, but the proposal for a diploma should only be delivered at the next negotiation meeting, scheduled for two weeks from now.
Speaking to journalists, the Minister of Education explained that the objective is for teachers of the 1st cycle, in a single teaching regime, “to be able to have total exemption from the teaching component from the age of 60”.
The measure should be applied gradually, added João Costa, without providing further details.
Currently, the teaching career statute only provides for the possibility for these teachers to request a reduction of five hours in the weekly teaching component from the age of 60.
The two negotiating meetings held yesterday, however, were not about this topic, but rather about a proposal from the Ministry of Education that provides for a set of measures with an impact on the career progression of teachers in office since 30 August 2005, i.e. , who went through the two periods of service time freeze.
With the aim of correcting asymmetries resulting from this freeze, the intention is for these teachers to recover the time they spent waiting for a vacancy in the 4th and 6th grades from the year of thawing (2018), that they are exempt from vacancies of access to the 5th and 7th grades, in addition to a one-year reduction in the duration of the step for those who were also waiting for a vacancy, but are already above the 6th grade.
On the part of the trade union organizations, the measures were considered insufficient and the claims remain: the end of vacancies for access to those levels and the recovery of all service time.
Asked whether the Government outright rejected the second proposal, João Costa admitted that the teachers' claim «is fair and legitimate», but also recognized that the Government does not have the possibility of «responding in integrity», due to the budgetary impact and, on the other hand , to other government options, such as housing policy.
«Recognizing this legitimacy, this proposal for a career accelerator is a response to mitigate the freeze period», aimed, above all, at the teachers most affected by the career freeze.
The minister also reaffirmed that the measures will cover around 60 teachers and some may recover, for example, four years, according to reports he has heard from professionals.
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