Access to the 5th and 7th levels of teaching work will continue depending on the availability of vacancies, although their number will be equal to the number of teachers. This is limited to a very short period of time and to a pre-defined universe of authors. This is one of the patent clarifications Bill of Rights The Ministry of Education (ME) sent it to teachers’ unions this Tuesday and it will be discussed in a guardian meeting with union organizations scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
In a proposal tabled on March 22, the ME had “exempted all teachers between levels 1 and 6 from vacancies for access to levels 5 and 7”. An exemption has been proposed and is not an end to these vacancies, one of the doubts raised among teachers is whether it is a permanent measure or a temporary one. Obviously this is made clear: it will be temporary.
One of the main demands of teachers’ unions is to end access vacancies for levels 5 and 7 of the teaching profession. To get rid of them, it is necessary to change the Teaching Profession Act (ECD) under which they are framed.
Half of the professors who are due for promotion have been stuck in the job in recent years due to the compulsion of vacancies. According to the National Federation of Teachers (Fenprof), around 6000 people are missing in 2022 alone.
In the initial draft of the diploma, which creates a “special regime to regulate asymmetry in career progression” of teachers, the ME now states that “necessary vacancies will be created for teachers at levels 5 and 7”. The requirements to do so are “progress to the above levels”. In this case, carry out the performance evaluation by noting the hours of good and continuous training mentioned in the ECD.
On the other hand, waiting time in steps 4 and 6 is expected to be “considered for advancement purposes” regardless of your current career situation as there are no vacancies to access the next steps. . This condition applies only to professors who have not received a vacancy between 2018 and 2022.
Teachers who are very good or outstanding in their ratings do not require vacancies to advance to Levels 5 and 7.
This situation was not anticipated in the proposal of March 22, which established only the “exemption for vacancies”, but assumed that the quotas for the issuance of notes of excellent and very good, as mentioned in the draft diploma, would be maintained. “Carrot” when moving to 5th and 7th levels: only 25% of teachers in each school can achieve this maximum score. And many authors have observed that these ratings go down well because of “adequate discharges”, thus depending on the number of vacancies for advancement annually by the government.
All teachers in post since the 2005/2006 academic year and those caught up in two periods of lockout (2005-2006 and 2011-2018) will be covered by the “asymmetrical disciplinary” measures.
For teachers at Step 7 and beyond, one year is expected to be deducted from the mandatory permanent time at each step, which is four years as a rule. If they have not benefited from the previous steps, it will be valid for those who reach step 7 after the new diploma comes into force.
Teachers’ unions have already announced that they will not accept the full restoration of frozen service time (six years, six months and 18 days), although this is to be done in a phased manner. A claim Prime Minister Antonio Costa rejected again last week in an interview with SIC.