Ministry defines "more demanding criteria" for mobility

The Ministry of Education has revised the rules for statutory teacher mobility, which will be reduced by 35% in the next academic year so that teachers in subjects and areas with the greatest shortages can return to schools.

In a statement, the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation (MECI) states that the rejection criteria will now include the mobility of teachers from “recruitment groups or territorial areas with a history of teacher shortages”.

Secondments that can be carried out by teachers from the school itself or by senior technicians will also be postponed, as well as “mobilities to entities in cases where the functions to be performed by teachers do not have a direct impact on curricular learning”.

“Mobility will only be authorized with a clear and objective presentation of the role to be performed, the correspondence between the teacher's profile and the proposed functions, as well as the guarantee that the teacher's absence does not compromise teaching activities”, states the Ministry.

Every year, the MECI authorizes the temporary mobility of teachers, through secondment to perform teaching duties in other public schools, or requisition to perform technical or technical-pedagogical duties outside the education system.

Last year, the executive had already set the target of reducing the number of statutory mobilities by 25% to respond to the problem of the lack of teachers.

According to MECI, the review of the rules for the next academic year is part of a second phase of the + Classes + Success plan, which should be presented soon.

“The shortage of teachers in various recruitment groups and in different geographical areas of the country, combined with the need to ensure that all students have classes and that there is equal access to quality education, justify the adoption of more demanding and rigorous criteria in the annual analysis of requests for statutory mobility”, writes the ministry.