The government’s proposal to review the Teaching Career Statute (ECD) provides that access to the career will be through a “centralized national competition”, a year of trial period and an exceptional regime for teachers without legal qualifications.
In the document released by the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation (MECI), sent to the unions for Wednesday’s negotiating meeting, it presents the guardianship’s proposal to review the ECD, which, according to the guardianship, “clarifies and systematizes the applicable regimes, reinforcing coherence between the ECD and the General Labor Law in Public Functions (LTFP), safeguarding the special nature of the teaching career”.
In recruitment, the proposal stipulates a “centralized national competition” as a “structuring instrument”, and “in compliance with the general principles of Public Administration”with entry into the career being made through an employment contract in public functions, for an indefinite period, while mechanisms for verifying the suitability of teachers are still maintained, namely the presentation of a criminal record certificate.
Entry into the career presupposes an initial year of trial period, monitored by a designated teacher and its successful completion determines “maintenance or termination of the relationship”. “The trial period is waived for teachers who, having already completed it, return to school after interrupting their teaching duties for a period of less than five years, ensuring demand, predictability and coherence in definitive entry into the career”the proposal also provides.
The document also clarifies the concept of teacher in the legislation, expressing the need for “legally foreseen scientific and pedagogical training”, but “without prejudice to, exceptionally and with a transitional nature, the exercise of the teaching function is permitted only with eligible legal scientific training”.
In this regard, the proposal provides for an exceptional and transitional regime, admitting “the conclusion of a fixed-term contract, with a maximum duration of up to three years, with the conclusion of a fixed-term contract, with a maximum duration of up to three years”. “Obtaining this pedagogical training determines the conversion of the contract, while failure to obtain it implies the expiration of the contract”says the document.
In the document for the meeting dedicated to negotiating the topics of teaching qualifications, recruitment and admission within the scope of ECD “MECI undertakes to initiate, in parallel, a structured process of reviewing the related legislative framework”namely diplomas relating to recruitment groups and teaching qualifications.
“The legislative review process will be developed based on a well-founded technical assessment, ensuring a plural process and due hearing of the sector’s representative structures. This review will take place in parallel with the negotiation of the ECD, ensuring regulatory coherence and avoiding dissonances between the ECD and the legal regimes that regulate access to and exercise of the profession”, concludes the document.
Regarding Wednesday’s meeting, the National Federation of Teachers (Fenprof) released this Tuesday, February 17, a statement in which regretted and criticized not only the postponement of the negotiation round initially scheduled for the beginning of February, but the fact that until Tuesday morning it had not received the guardianship negotiation proposalalso taking advantage of the statement to draw red lines. “Regarding the matters under analysis, Fenprof reaffirms its position: it will not accept any lowering of teaching qualificationsnor the end or limitation of the national competition, by professional degree, essential instruments to guarantee transparency, equity and quality in access to the profession”, he stated in the statement.
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