World Teachers’ Day: older and tired, with stress and bureaucratic work – and with the house on their shoulders

Teachers are an increasingly aging class, the majority of whom are over 50 years old, and which continue to be made up mainly of women, according to a portrait drawn up based on official statistics.

In the 2022/2023 school year, there were around 140 thousand early childhood educators and compulsory education teachers, the vast majority of whom were women. In pre-school, for example, the percentage of men was just 1% and in the 1st cycle it was 22%, according to the report “Portugal in Numbers 2024”, recently released by the Directorate-General for Education and Science Statistics (DGEEC).

The report shows that the number of teachers has remained stable over the last decade, with the exception of the 2nd cycle, which lost 3,895 teachers. However, teachers are getting older and, therefore, closer to retirement.

In the 1st cycle only, the average age is 49 years old. At the remaining levels of education, the majority have already passed the 50 barrier, with the 5th and 6th year classes being the oldest, with an average age of 52 years. Teachers who teach students from the 7th year onwards are, on average, 51 years old.

Every year, complaints about the lack of teachers in schools highlight the problems of a career, which unions say is unattractive, but also excessive work and bureaucracy.

Unions also complain that this is an undervalued class, with more and more professionals sick and on the verge of ‘burnout’.

The latest State of Education report, from the National Education Council (CNE), revealed that almost 90% of teachers complained of stress at work and, therefore, the rapporteurs defended the need to “rethink a set of measures that guarantee conditions effective teacher well-being measures”.

In recent years, the number of teachers known to be “with their house on their backs” has decreased, with the opening of competitions designed to guarantee a stable employment, but the unions understand that many more measures are needed to make the profession more attractive.

In addition to a very long career, in relation to other European countries, the CNE report states that there is a “very significant” difference in pay between the levels at the beginning and end of their career. A problem that the current Minister of Education has already shown openness to trying to resolve, promising salary increases for those in the first ranks.

In recent years, there has been a slight increase in the number of graduates in courses that provide qualifications for teaching, but it is still not enough to respond to the vacancies of those who leave each year for retirement.

World Teachers’ Day is being celebrated all over the world today, with a demonstration scheduled in Lisbon, which will serve to draw attention to the problems of the classroom, but also to remember some demands, with just over a week left until the presentation of the government’s bill for the next State Budget.