The objective of the new decree-law is to combat the lack of teachers “which the country is facing and will face in the coming years”, explained the Minister of Education, João Costa, ensuring that with the new rules “there is no leveling down, it is all about leveling it up.”

The new legal regime for professional qualifications for teaching was the subject of negotiations with the unions, who recognised improvements in relation to the initial text but refused to reach an agreement as they considered there were areas for improvement.

The new rules which come into force in the next academic year provide for the allocation of classes to student interns and the return of paid internships.

Interns will be assigned classes, equivalent to 12 teaching hours, instead of only having a few classes attended.

João Costa said it is not possible to come up with a certain number on how many interns will have classes assigned to them in the next academic year: “At the moment, we have around 1,300 students in training in all the master's degrees in teaching. Next year, we will be able to have all those who started this year in this internship model and we will necessarily also have all those who will start in 2024/2025”, he explained.

From negotiations with the unions, it was decided that time served during internships would be counted for career purposes, recalled João Costa.

The diploma also covers teachers who already teach with their own qualifications, who, if they have more than six years of service, can replace the internship with a report.

Higher education institutions (HEIs) will also have greater autonomy and “freedom to evaluate the qualifications and qualifications of teaching candidates”, he added, ensuring that “the quality of teaching is not at stake”.

Interns will have the support of mentor teachers, who will be given a reduction in their working hours - up to six hours a week - to be able to accompany future teachers.

João Costa once again highlighted that the demand for courses in higher education institutions to become a teacher “has been increasing”: “We already have teacher training courses that are leaving out good candidates”.

Regarding the lack of time for HEIs to be able to adapt their courses to the new rules, the minister said that joint work is underway with the Ministry of Higher Education “to review the deadlines for submitting these courses and provide support to HEIs to do these adaptations.”

Regarding the lack of teachers in schools, João Costa assured that at the moment “99% of schedules have teachers” and the remaining schedules are “recent needs”: “It is a dynamic process. Every week we have been placing between 600 and 700 teachers and every week we receive new requests,” he explained.

The diploma approved today was the subject of a negotiation process that ended on Monday, with the unions recognising improvements in relation to the initial version, but arguing that it still had flaws that prevented them from reaching an agreement.