By Andrea Hargraves 
The Minister of Education, Science and Innovation treated the Portuguese to an open classroom on national television. An interview given at the beginning of the school year turned into a prayer of wisdom (memorization, viewing and review), marking the beginning of a new era in public schools.
He presented the project of the education system in Portugal, pointing out the way forward and what is needed to get there. He showed his vision and faced the challenges in a passionate, clear and simple way. As an educator, he revealed his knowledge of the problems and, in a practical way, the way to solve them, involving everyone – teachers, students, families, technical and operational assistants, psychologists, local authorities and higher education institutions. In addition to the diagnosis, he gave importance to the evaluation of public policies and the measurement of impact. In previous years, no progress had been made beyond the census stage, yet it seems that the voices of the past are still unwilling to acknowledge the seriousness and dimensions of the problems.
The results of the past eight years in education are worrying because of the deterioration of learning, instability and disruption in schools and the shortage of teachers. At the beginning of the new school year and with the new government, the school community realizes that there is new hope. First and foremost, because there is a team that has been working daily, since taking office, to improve public schools, their dignity and their appreciation.
Strikes end when teachers are heard, negotiations are serious and dialogue is close. A historic agreement could have been reached in a short time to restore the frozen tenure and put an end to the period of sanctions for Portuguese students and families. Two months after taking office, the government launched the +Classes + Success plan, which is already being implemented, with 15 measures to reduce the bureaucratic burden on teachers, allow for more effective teacher management, give tools to schools and principals, and retain and attract teachers, with a focus on intergenerational transition. The goal is ambitious, strong, very demanding but necessary: reduce the number of students without classes by 90% at the end of the first period since September.
It is unacceptable that thousands of students each year are without classes for long periods, especially in the most disadvantaged contexts. It is a serious failure of public schools, raising questions about equality of opportunity and the investment that families and the state make in education. This government is frank, speaking humbly to the school community and without creating false expectations: by refusing to think about this situation, it has assumed that a structural problem cannot be solved overnight, after having been ignored and exacerbated in recent years.
According to the Education at a Glance 2024 report, Portugal is the OECD country with the lowest proportion of teachers under 30 years old. The increasing number of teachers retiring, due to the ageing of the teaching population, and the difficulty of attracting young people to replace the retirees, characterizes the challenge ahead, which requires a series of measures to be taken immediately, as well as in the long term. The Regency has already announced that it will start, together with the unions, a review of the statute of the teaching profession and the next steps do not stop there.
The government is moving quickly to address the shortcomings of the previous executive’s school-year planning, which left teacher recruitment competitions without students and students without teachers, in contrast to the North, Lisbon, Alentejo and Algarve regions. It has gone ahead with an unusual competition to recruit teachers for the schools most in need, while offering teachers an incentive to travel to teach classes with high student numbers, through travel subsidies. After all, students without classes cannot wait any longer.
Teachers touch the lives of so many young people through the inspiring lessons they teach their students. This Minister is already changing the lives of students, teachers and the entire school community through the content of the planned reforms and the message of trust, perseverance and respect for public schools.
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