Portugal Boosts School Mediators and Unveils Teacher Recruitment Guide to Ensure Uninterrupted Classes

The Ministry of Education has introduced new measures aimed at ensuring "uninterrupted classes" for the academic year 2025/2026. This initiative is an update to the previous +Aulas+Sucesso Plan, which was implemented last year.

One of the key strategies involves simplifying the process of substituting teachers, which the government claims could halve the time students spend without lessons. Despite the lack of precise data on the number of students affected by teacher shortages annually—"we have 312 IT applications and none can count the number of students without teachers," stated the minister—the shortage of educators is a well-known issue.

In a move to address this, the ministry has also proposed increasing the number of mediators in schools and developing a guideline to attract more teachers. These measures were presented to hundreds of school directors in a recent meeting, highlighting the government's commitment to improving the educational landscape in Portugal.