The Good
It seems the state school system has reconsidered and decided to take me off the list of teachers for whom there would be no timetable next year. I should feel very lucky, but somehow I don't, because I was made to apply for a transfer and that application was ignored.
The Bad
It's a pity that I and over ten thousand other teachers had to go through uncertainty and anxiety until the lists were published yesterday. We were all forced to apply for transfers, knowing they were few and far between. July was stressful and August should have been a relaxing holiday but the worry about possible unemployment was always there in the back of our minds.
The Ugly
The state decided that teachers will all work more (have another two periods with students on the timetable) and have more students per class (30 students), I have no idea how it is that they found a timetable for many of us, all of a sudden. For all I know, I could be teaching subjects other than English at several different schools (with no transport allowance).
The new decisions have horrific consequences for teacher unemployment. Over 50 thousand teachers applied for teaching posts - nearly 40 thousand will be visiting the job centres around the country next week. Such is the life of a teacher in Portugal.
Related post: Time Out
Such is the life of teachers all over these days. It seems our politicians deem war more important than education.
ReplyDeleteWithout good education, the future is compromised.
DeleteI had no idea. I'm way up here in Canada and coming to you from IWSG. Our teachers here are overwhelmed by crowded classrooms. I no longer have children in the system but I see how frustrated their parents are. Extra curriculums were slashed last year. The school where my littlest grandchildren went didn't even have an end of year concert. The end just ended. The kids were so disappointed. I hope things work out for you, Mara.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments. I'm afraid that I had better conditions at school 40 years ago in Africa than my students have now. That is sad.
DeleteThis is disgusting. How dare they treat the teachers like this. The students are the future of Portugal. All I read from the PM is how great Portugal is and what a great recovery it is making. Fuel costs are spiralling out of control, doctors and nurses have been laid off, businesses are closing down becuse people do not ahve the money to spend - what is the true cost of staying in the Euro one asks. I thought the idea in a recession was to generate jobs, so people had money to spend and therefore the economy would grow.
ReplyDeleteCan't you find a job elsewhere in the world? I feel so sorry for you.
It is so frustrating but I'm too old to emigrate and I do love living here, Piglet.
DeleteIt is frustrating for teachers in the US too -- many cutbacks, larger classrooms. Not sure where it will end.
ReplyDeleteI finally found your blog. Because I use WordPress, it didn't give me a url for you so I didn't think you blogged. Glad I googled you! (Thank God for Google!)
Thank you so much for taking the trouble to search for my blog, and visit. I keep hoping for things to change for the better but this recession is dragging everything down. :-(
Delete