National Education Council suggests <em>online</em> teaching for students without a teacher

The president of the National Education Council (CNE) suggested this Tuesday that online teaching could be one of the answers to mitigate the impact on learning of the lack of teachers and also proposed hiring more foreign teachers.

"I don't know if we are already properly exploring the potential of online training, or if we don't need to think more about this matter", said Domingos Fernandes.

The idea was launched during a hearing in the parliamentary committee on Education and Science on the State of Education 2023 report, released in January, in which the Government's advisory body highlights the lack of teachers and, consequently, the number of students without classes as worrying.

In response to the deputies, the president of the CNE considered that focusing on initial teacher training does not allow for a response to the problem in the short term and defended the need to explore other alternatives.

One of the ways could be through systems that allow supporting students who are without classes because they do not have a teacher through online classes, suggested Domingos Fernandes, questioning whether the "means available or that can be made available in terms of online training" have been exhausted.

On the teachers' side, the person in charge argued that there is room to increase the hiring of foreign teachers , as well as graduates who do not yet have professional qualifications.

"I'm not advocating that we look for university students, but I'm thinking that one of the recruitment sources will be graduates with scientific qualifications, but not pedagogical ones", he explained, noting, however, that pedagogical training is "absolutely fundamental and what differentiates the profession".

During the hearing, Domingos Fernandes also defended the need to "invest more in the quality of students' learning ", especially in the first years of schooling.

According to the report, Portugal has an increasing number of qualified young adults, but there are many gaps in learning, and the situation is particularly worrying among the youngest, who have shown great difficulties in writing and mathematics.

On the other hand, the president of the CNE argued that secondary education cannot be seen as "a mere passageway to higher education", proposing a "very deep and cautious" reflection on the objectives for that level of education.

"We have managed, albeit timidly, to give it a certain identity, but we have to think about whether we are treating the courses in the same way or whether we have a special preference", he said, defending the valorization of other teaching paths besides scientific-humanistic courses and, even within these options, of all disciplines equally, without prioritizing only those that are useful for entry into universities and polytechnics.

On this topic, Domingos Fernandes also highlighted the role of vocational education in increasing school enrolment rates, which in secondary education are close to 90%, well above the level recorded at the end of the 1990s, when just over half of Portuguese people had completed the 12th grade.

"It has been a path that, from our point of view, has been greatly boosted by the inclusion of professional courses in public schools", he stated, insisting on the need to value this educational path so that it is not seen "as something that is left over".