Government says it is resolving differences between teachers in Portuguese schools abroad – Society

The Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation (MECI) assured this Saturday that it is trying to resolve income discrepancies between teachers in Portuguese schools abroad, after newly hired teachers in Dili (Timor-Leste) reported the situation to the President of the Republic .

“Efforts are underway with a view to resolving issues raised by teachers involved in an extraordinary competition for teaching teachers to Portuguese Schools Abroad in the MECI public network, regarding guarantees and social protection”, informed the ministry, in response to questions from Lusa, which also received reports of similar cases in Angola and Mozambique.

The position of the ministry led by Fernando Alexandre stems from the complaint by Portuguese teachers in a letter sent to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, in which they warn of the income disparity in relation to their mobile colleagues and ask for similar rights.

In the letter, the teachers at Escola Portuguesa de Díli explain that a colleague on a mobility basis, in addition to receiving his salary, also receives an installation allowance of 3 thousand dollars and a monthly allowance of 1500 dollars to compensate for differences in cost. of life between Portugal and Timor-Leste.

“The difference is overwhelming and reflects a huge disparity in rights and benefits between a single teaching body. We do not believe in double standards, first class teachers and second class teachers”, write the teachers in the letter, in which they highlight the importance of resolve the “inconsistency”.

This group of teachers, some of whom had already worked at the school for several years, joined the staff as part of an extraordinary external competition opened in December 2023.

However, the link with the Escola Portuguesa de Díli did not remove them from the precarious situation and created a “general uncertainty”, because they were unaware of their rights and faced with their doubts, they were sent to the legislation that establishes the applicable working conditions. in mainland Portugal.

According to the teachers, in addition to still not being sure about their rights, including ADSE, in September and October they were remunerated with the “stipulated amount corresponding to the index awarded in the first step of the teaching career, exempt from tax”, without any “amount in the form of allowance or compensation”.

There are cases in which teachers received monthly salaries lower than those they received while hired.