“Next school year, there will once again be many students without classes”, the president of the National Association of Directors of Public Schools and Groups (ANDAEP), Filinto Lima, told Lusa, guaranteeing that the more than 11,000 vacancies will not be enough to meet the needs.

The two openings, which end on Wednesday, made 5,623 positions available for contracted teachers to join the staff and another 5,433 vacancies on the school staff, so that teachers can apply to other schools.

“The competitions are now annual, but they do not solve the problem, which will only be resolved much later, in 2030”, the director of the Dr. Costa Matos School Group, in Vila Nova de Gaia, told Lusa.

For several years, the regions of Lisbon, Alentejo and the Algarve have been identified as the most problematic and it was in these areas that the most vacancies have now opened up: Of the total 11,056 places, 4,305 (39%) correspond to areas of Greater Lisbon, Setúbal Peninsula, Alentejo and Algarve.

However, Filinto Lima estimates that these vacancies will not be enough to cover the departures caused by teachers' retirements.

The Ministry of Education had clarified that the needs had been identified by the schools together with the General Directorate of School Administration (DGAE), taking into account criteria such as the current teaching staff in the different subjects, the forecast of the total number of students and the teaching hours required for the next academic year.

The survey also considered the number of teachers who cannot teach, the shortage of teachers and the history of recruitment difficulties, based on the vacancies that were not filled in temporary needs until the second reserve registration.

In the end, there were 4,729 “negative vacancies,” which correspond, for example, to teachers who will retire from the start of the next school year or teachers without a teaching component assigned.

However, Filinto Lima said that they will not be enough, citing special education students as the most serious example.

The president of ANDAEP accused the services of continuing to open few vacancies for special education teachers: “This is a poorly treated recruitment group, it is the poor relation of education, since we have more and more students with specific needs and yet we do not have many more vacancies”.