Schools must ensure, as of this Wednesday, February 1st, minimum services due to the indefinite strike of education professionals, according to a decision that, while not totally unprecedented in the sector, has left many doubts for principals

Support for students with specific educational needs and students in vulnerable situations, therapeutic support and meals are some of the services that will have to be guaranteed by teachers and non-teaching staff until the end of the week.
The decision of the Arbitration Court, known on Friday, refers only to the indefinite strike that began in December, called by the Union of All Educational Professionals (STOP) and follows a request submitted by the Ministry of Education.
The issue passed into the hands of the court on January 20, after the union refused the proposal of the tutelage of minimum services that would allow schools to be open, provide meals and receive students with special educational needs, and an Arbitration Panel was then formed.
According to the ruling, schools will also have to ensure the reception of students in the units integrated into Learning Support Centers, the continuity of measures aimed at socio-emotional well-being, under the plan for recovery of learning, and the gatekeeping and surveillance of students.
The STOP coordinator, André Pestana, considered this to be "a desperate attempt by an authoritarian government, which can't get any other way than by force," and "an attack on the right to strike.
On the part of the Ministry of Education, which had already asked the Attorney General's Office for an opinion on the legality of the strike, the request was justified by the "duration and unpredictability" and the "accumulated consequences for students, in terms of their protection, food and support in vulnerable contexts.
This is the third time that minimum services have been decreed for schools, and until 2013, the legislation did not include education among the "unforeseeable social needs."
At that time, the government led by Pedro Passos Coelho changed the General Labor Law in Public Functions, following a general strike that forced the postponement of the national mathematics exam, to include the "realization of final assessments, exams or tests of national character that must be held on the same date throughout the national territory.
After that, minimum services were decreed for the first time only in 2017, in the context of a strike that again coincided with the exam period. The decision was repeated the following year, in response to a strike on assessments, and the Court of Appeal later ruled it illegal.
Now, there is no question of national exams, but the Arbitration Court argues that the STOP strike, by its unpredictability, jeopardizes learning and that, therefore, "it is necessary to safeguard the situation of students who in the coming months should take" the exams of the 9th year and high school.
Still, the court chose not to decree, for now, minimum services for school activities, considering that the cumulative effect of the strike does not yet put in question the satisfaction of "pressing social needs" at this level, but has a different understanding about the meals and monitoring of the most vulnerable students.
School principals say they have been left with many doubts and admit that it may be difficult to ensure the defined minimum services, on the one hand due to the lack of operational assistants that many schools face under normal circumstances, and on the other hand due to overlapping strikes.
In addition to the STOP strike, a three-day national strike by the National Union of Licensed Teachers will begin today, with a partial strike by the Independent Union of Teachers and Educators, and a strike by districts, called by a platform of nine union organizations.
"In the case of overlapping strikes, do schools have to have minimum services?", questioned, in statements to Lusa, the president of the National Association of Directors of Groupings and Public Schools, which sent on Monday, a request for clarification to the Ministry of Education.
By the end of the day Tuesday, the association had not received a response from the guardianship and, recognizing that schools are, to some extent, without knowing what to do, Filinto Lima added: "I just hope that if something happens that is not in accordance with the ruling, do not blame the directors".
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