Teachers accuse the ministry of taking advantage of strikes to "sneak in" to make this change

Teachers of professional courses denounced this Wednesday that the guardianship will integrate the technical expertise in the career of Senior Technician, accusing the ministry of taking advantage of strikes to, "sneak", make this change that represents loss of income.
"They took advantage of this revolution in Education, of the fact that they were very busy with the demands of the teachers' career unions, to send this by stealth. They didn't publish it and sent it directly to the principals," Maria Olinda Marques, Specialized Technician for Training, told Lusa.
Lusa questioned the Ministry of Education and is awaiting information on the matter.
Maria Olinda Marques, a teacher at the Abel Salazar School Grouping, São Mamede de Infesta, Matosinhos, explained that teachers of professional courses were surprised, on Monday evening, with the information that they would be integrated in the career of Superior Technician, despite exercising teaching functions and assuming, in many cases, coordination positions, course and class management, among others.
"All our functions are exactly the same as those of teachers. We evaluate, we teach students how to know how to be, how to be and how to do. (...) So we were incredulous with what the ministry was doing, even because, already in 2019, [the guardianship] had retreated because we did not fit the profile of higher technician", said.
"Now there is a paragraph in the profile of higher technician that describes the functions of a trainer," she said, accusing the ministry of making a change that allows any worker to fit these functions and, more seriously, allow any higher technician to replace a teacher.
Maria Olinda Marques stressed that specialized technicians for training have always been evaluated and subject to the quotas of the teaching career, so, she argued, they should be integrated in it and not in a category that would also bring loss of income.
"In my case, I have two university degrees - one in Marketing, the other in Tourism, two post-graduate degrees and a Master's in Education with a specialization in Administration of Educational Organizations - and at this moment I was going to lose the little that I already earn, which has gone up to 1,400 this month and they were going to integrate me into a career earning 1310 euros," he revealed.
In the same situation, Hélder Caridade, teacher and Course Director at the Ponte de Lima Professional School, classifies this decision as a "tremendous injustice", considering it to be an illegal act that in addition to the downgrading of his career has financial impact.
"I have a master's degree, a post-graduate degree, I'm doing a doctorate, I earn 1,400 euros gross. With this integration I will earn about 114 euros less, but a colleague who is not a graduate has an increase of about 200 euros, where is the legitimacy of this?", he concluded, adding that the specialized technicians have ten days to accept the vacancies put out to tender. If they don't accept, they lose their vacancy.
"We want to be integrated, but not under these conditions", remarked Hélder Caridade who has been working as a teacher for 12 years.
According to the two technicians, nationwide there will be about 2,000 professionals in this situation, 200 had already resorted to the Program for Extraordinary Regularization of Precarious Contracts in Public Administration (PREVPAP) having seen their process approved in 2019.
However, so far, these professionals have not seen any practical effect of this homologation, having been, on the contrary, surprised with the decision of integration in the career of Senior Technician.
In a statement released this Wednesday, the Specialized Training Technicians demand that the rules for integration into the teaching career be extended to these specialized technicians, as happened with other teachers, also requesting a review of the qualifications for teaching, taking into account the pre-Bologna degrees.
They also defend the integration of the teaching career indexes and the creation of a legal provision that allows for the recognition of in-service professionalization and integration into the teaching career, among other demands.
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