Tiago Brandão Rodrigues, 38, new Minister of Education,
Tiago Brandão Rodrigues is a Postdoctoral fellow
at the University of Cambridge and Cancer Research UK.
Mário Nogueira of the radical FENPROF Trade Union
has admitted that he hasn´t given ONE lesson in the last 30 years
but he has received full salary and even promotion as a teacher
The Socialist Government of Mr. António Costa
has relinquished control over the Department of Education.
The radical and extremists,
the BE and the communists have taken over.
They admit that they have lots of "work" ahead,
the desmantle, what was built up during the last decade in Portugal.
Portugal has been decades behind other European countries,
in school quality and insuccess at school has been sky-high.
In the last decade, the Socialist, the PSD/CDS,
have struggled against all odds to bring reforms and avaliation for teachers,
to improve the quality of the teaching in Portugal.
They have met with fierce, violet strikes in the streets,
organised by the communist trade union, FENPROF:
In 2008, Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues,
the Socialist Minister of Education said,
in answering a petion in Parliament
for the elimination of the assessment exam for teachers:
"The exam of admission for teachers,
is a way to guarantee fairness for all who enter the teaching profession,
a way of ensuring the quality of the education system
and also a way of ensuring better preparation of teachers."
Now in 2015,
with the unelected Socialist government of António Costa in power,
the assessment exam has been eliminated by parliamentary initiative
of the Communists and the radical BE
and with the favourable vote of the Socialists.
We can only wonder WHAT will come next!
For the socialists,
is it no longer important to have guarantees of fairness,
quality and better preparation of the teachers?
And in its place, what will emerge?
Certainties, there are none.
Because, as with the elimination of examinations of the 4th year,
there was no public discussion nor any debate.
Nor has there been compliance with the Government program (p. 110),
which points to the probable suspension or re-evaluation
of the examination (instead of its elimination).
Neither were there any Minister of Education involved in the process,
of whom we could ask:
what´s the strategy and what direction are you taking?
It's just weird,
but it is also an option with four dire consequences:
The first is:
that all math, chemistry and Portuguese teachers, who FAILED
the assessment exam (and, as such, were prevented from teaching) will, after all,
be teaching mathematics, chemistry and Portuguese to the kids.
The second is:
precisely the fact that this option appeals to sacked "teachers"
but harms the image of the state school,
in comparrison with the quality of the private education system,
because it associates itself to disregarding a demanding and quality criteria.
The third is:
that, the Socialists, through giving in to the parties
supporting Costa´s unelected government,
a void was created within the strategic fronts to combat school failure.
And the fourth consequence is:
that this concession has a price:
it puts into question not only all that was built up
within the educational system
in the last 10 years by the PSD / CDS coalition
but also by the socialists themselves.
The quality of teacher training is, throughout Europe,
a priority of public policies on education,
due to a consolidated evidence in dozens of scientific articles and international reports:
at school, no factor has greater influence on students' learning than the teacher.
In other words, there is a tremendous difference between learning
with a good or learning from a bad teacher.
Therefore, many countries chose to introduce stringent criteria
for access to the teaching profession, as the center of their educational policy,
with Finland as the best known example -
the Finns only trust the best of the best, to prepare future generations in their schools.
The strategic issue is summed up thus, in a very simple way:
it is legitimate to disagree with the evaluation evidence of assessment,
but those who disagree have a responsibility to launch alternatives.
Because it really is imperative, to have the best possible teachers in schools.
The Socialists know it, and have entered the race in 2007,
but the radicals and extremist within the communist and Bloco Esquerda parties
have refused it. And what happened on Friday in Parliament,
was the elimination of the assessment exam
on the terms set forth by the communists and the BE,
on behalf of the refusal of this requirement.
In the end, the question remains, who pulls the strings in the Education Department?
It will surely not be the minister, of whom nobody knows any strategic position or plan
of the various measures already taken in its sector.
Nor does the parliamentary Socialists,
because these measures violate their electoral commitments
and decisions of their previous governments.
And it can not even be the Constitutional Court,
which recognized, in its judgment,
that "there are reasons of public interest, that support the evaluation exam requirement."
So the only ones left over, are the Communist and radical BE´s teachers trade unions.
Are they, respectively, the brains and the voices,
that outline the course of Education in Portugal?
It seems so.
Because between them is the only policy coherence in this process:
It is their struggles and their election promises that are making the new laws.
They have the Socialists completely in their pockets.
Therefore, do not judge all this as harmless.
The divestiture of the PS to corporate interests
will have a high price to be paid by the education system,
as it implies not only the repeal of the work done by the PSD / CDS in the last 4 years,
but also the work done by the PS,
as exemplified by the elimination of the controversial exam of evaluation of teachers.
Tests, exams for teachers, retraining, decentralization, school aggregations.
How far will this reckoning be taken?
Mário Nogueira has reported that there is a lot of work ahead,
"there are many issues because of the long and destructive action
of the previous governments and the previous Ministry of Education team and,
in general, nefarious government action in education over the past decade ".
for example, everything the PSD, PS and CDS built up, in education over the last decade
- one in which much progress has been made and which placed the country
up to good international averages - is at stake.
There remains only a very faint hope that the Socialists
will NOT be willing to risk everything, just to stay in power.
UNFORTUNATELY, I'M NOT THAT OPTIMISTIC!!
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