The National Education Federation (FNE) warned that Portugal faces an unprecedented decade of generational replacement in the teaching profession, being unable to replace the teachers who retire due to a lack of graduates and incentives for new professionals. The union federation presented a study called "National Map of Teaching Needs 2035", which reveals that by 2034/35, mainland Portugal will need to recruit 38,779 new teachers, representing an average need of 3,800 entries per year, but in 2022/23 there were only 2,141 graduates from teacher training courses.
In the 2024/25 school year, approximately 122,000 teachers were in service, but estimates indicate that 37% of this workforce will leave by 2034. Even accounting for a 5% reduction in students by that period, more than 38,000 new professionals will be needed. Regionally, the projected needs reach 13,381 teachers in the North, 10,711 in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, 9,656 in the Centre, 3,221 in the Alentejo and 1,810 in the Algarve, with 20,606 of these new teachers needed for the 3rd cycle and secondary education.
FNE demanded that the government present cross-cutting measures for the problem, having requested information on the topic at the beginning of the month, but without obtaining a response. The federation advocates for the creation of a public, transparent and regularly updated instrument, accompanied by a permanent observatory that brings together the ministry, higher education institutions, union organizations and municipalities, allowing needs to be anticipated by municipality, Pedagogical Zone Framework and recruitment area.
Among the proposals presented by FNE are a Teacher Settlement Statute with housing and commuting support, appropriate incentives and greater stability in the territories where recruitment is most difficult
