The Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation (MECI) announced this Tuesday (9) in a statement that 169 teachers on mobility in its services and in other public administration services will return to schools in January 2026.
“The Minister of Education, Science and Innovation, Fernando Alexandre, ordered the return to schools of another 169 teachers who until now worked, on mobility, in the services of the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation (MECI) or in other Public Administration services”, reads the note released this evening.
And “the majority of these teachers belong to Recruitment Groups and Pedagogical Zone Staff in need, being able to provide classes to thousands of students”, especially in subject areas and in regions of the country where there is a greater shortage of teachers and more difficulties in hiring or replacing them, following sick leaves or retirements, for example.
These teachers will also be able to “guarantee essential pedagogical responses, namely educational support, assistance and others necessary for the functioning of schools”, says MECI in the note.
Thus, teachers, who will return to schools “from January”, that is, at the beginning of the 2nd academic period, belong, above all, to recruitment groups with deficits, “as is the case in the 1st cycle of Basic Education [36 docentes]“, informa.
Furthermore, “mostly”, belong to schools located in Pedagogical Zone Frameworks 45 (Vila Franca de Xira, Loures, Sintra, Cascais, Oeiras, Amadora, Odivelas and Lisbon) and 46 (Almada, Seixal, Barreiro, Moita, Montijo, Alcochete, Palmela, Sesimbra and Setúbal), specifies.
Currently, these teachers are working in the General Directorate of School Establishments (DGEstE), in the General Directorate of Education (DGE), in the General Secretariat of Education and Science, in the General Directorate of School Administration (DGAE), in the National Agency for Qualification and Professional Education (ANQEP) or in the Institute of Financial Management of Education (IGeFE), between others.
According to the statement, the exception to the cessation of mobility now determined are teachers who are in services “whose intervention ensures urgent, essential and indispensable responses to the protection of children and young people, particularly in contexts of particular vulnerability”.
The decision now taken is due to a new organization of MECI services that allowed more teachers to be released to schools, he highlights.
Depending on the note, The new organization of MECI, with the creation of the Agency for the Management of the Educational System (AGSE) and the Institute of Education, Quality and Assessment (EduQA), has so far allowed “the return to schools of 257 teachers, out of a total of 515 teachers assigned to MECI services until the beginning of the Ministry’s reform”. And the teachers who are essential to the functions and processes considered essential to their proper functioning remain at AGSE and EduQA.
In the note, the minister thanks the teachers who worked in the MECI services or in other Public Administration services.
However, the ministry emphasizes that “ensuring that all students have classes is an essential condition for the Public School to fulfill its mission of ensuring equal opportunities for all students, promoting educational success throughout the territory”.
Admitting that the absence of classes, caused by the shortage of teachers, “harms the school journey of thousands of children and young people, compromises the investment of families and the State, and undermines the trust of Portuguese society in the educational system and, in particular, in Public Schools”.