The five schools of the Ferreira de Castro group, in Mem Martins, in the municipality of Sintra, were closed at 9 a.m. this Wednesday due to a strike by non-teaching workers in protest against the lack of human resources, Lusa reported. a union source.
The workers scheduled strikes for this Wednesday and until Friday, from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., to ask the Government and the Sintra City Council for a reinforcement of non-teaching personnel, especially operational assistants with auxiliary functions of educational actionin that group of schools.
In statements to the Lusa agency, João Santos, from the Union of Public and Social Functions Workers of the South and the Autonomous Regions, told Lusa that the school is closed due to lack of teaching staff, who are concentrated at the entrance of the school .
“The five schools of the group, whose headquarters are the Escola Básica Ferreira de Castro, are closed. Around 40 non-teaching workers gather at the entrance to the headquarters to demand more workers.”said.
According to João Santos, the The lack of workers is affecting the quality of monitoring and the safety of the children and young people who attend the schools.
“Of the 31 non-teaching workers at the headquarters, 10 are on sick leave and two are relocated. “We are only talking about the main school of 1,205 students, of which 314 have special needs,” he said.
According to the union leader, the number of children with special educational needs in public schools has increased in the municipality of Sintra and this is reflected in this group.
“These children need more attention and permanent care as well as specialized monitoring. The group also needs more specialized technicians who can accompany them,” he stated.
The union leader also said that the Sintra Chamber informed the workers that there will be an increase in staff in January.
“We urgently need reinforcements, that is why the workers decided to go on strike to alert local authorities and the Government of the urgent need for solutions,” he concluded.
In a written response sent to Lusa, the Sintra City Council clarified that “the autarchy has systematically guaranteed the existence of competitive procedures that guarantee the maintenance of hiring subsidies, thus allowing, at the appropriate time, the allocation of human resources necessary for compliance with current legislation.”
The municipality’s note also points out that, although it is the responsibility of the chamber to hire human resources, it is the responsibility of the General Directorate of Schools (DGEstE) to define the annual number of operational assistants that will be assigned to each educational establishment.
“The municipality clarifies that to date, although the validation of the ratio for the current academic year has not yet been received from the DGEstE, a rectification of the current ratio, which already has the number of operational assistants corresponding to the opening of new Early Childhood Education rooms and Learning Support Centers in schools in the municipality of Sintra”, the note indicates.
In his response to Lusa, the chamber highlighted that “public schools are equipped with their own organizations, with skills in management, as well as in the organization of educational offers and responses.”implemented through teaching, non-teaching and other professional staff.”
According to the note, this means that the activities carried out in the educational field do not depend exclusively on the work of operational assistants and, therefore, the occasional absence of workers does not put the safety and support provided to students at risk. .
The Ferreira de Quatro School Group includes the Ferreira de Castro Basic School (2nd Cycle and 3rd Cycle), Basic School No. 1 (1st Cycle), Basic School with Kindergarten, Preschool and 1st cycle, Basic School (pre-school and 1st cycle) and JI No. 3 (preschool), in Mem Martins, Lisbon district.
Source: Observadora
