Catarina Martins, coordinator of the BE, accused the government on Tuesday of “not giving an inch” and asked for “quick signals” that teachers are respected and heard, with two blockade proposals approved on Friday.
On the last day of the parliamentary days of the BE, Catarina Martins joined the national teachers’ strike in Viseu, a rally at which she greeted Fenprof’s general secretary, Mário Nogueira.
“Irresponsibility and radicalism are on the side of the government, which does not give an inch and thus empty the school of teachers and conditions necessary for the public school to function. The government must send signals quickly, as early as next Friday can start giving signals and of course negotiate the rest,” the block leader challenged in statements to journalists.
Considering that there is an “impossible stalemate” and that “foolishness is on the part of the government”, Catarina Martins defended that the executive under the leadership of António Costa should “immediately take measures that make teachers’ lives possible”.
“I have a suggestion for the government to act now: on Friday the status of teachers and educators will be debated in parliament and there are two measures that the government could now adopt. One was to remove the blockade of access to the fifth and seventh tier and the other was to pay travel expenses to displaced teachers,” he said.
Making it clear that this did not solve all the problems, according to the leader of the BE with these two measures approved “the conditions in the schools were different and the terms of negotiation were different to make progress in all other subjects”.
“Sending a signal to teachers that they are respected and heard, that it’s worth working for decades and committing to the public school so they can progress in their careers and pay for travel expenses for those who have miles and travel miles to ensure there is no shortage of teachers where they are needed,” he stressed.
After that, “everything else” would be necessary, Catarina Martins defended, such as seniority and other circumstances at school.
“The problem of the country is that there are no conditions for people to be able to be teachers and want to be teachers. Even if the strike ended tomorrow, we would still have an extraordinary shortage of teachers,” he said.
Source: DN
