SP starts school year with classes without defined teacher – 02/15/2024 – Education

Schools in the São Paulo state network started the school year this Thursday (15) with thousands of teachers without assigned classes. In some units, on the first day, students were left without classes due to a lack of teachers.

The problem occurred after the Tarcísio de Freitas (Republican) administration changed the rules for defining classes for temporary teachers (called category O), who are almost half of the total of 216 thousand teachers who work in the São Paulo network.

After ten years without hiring staff, the State Department of Education held a competition with the expectation of recruiting 15 thousand teachers. Their hiring, however, is only scheduled for 2025. For this academic year, the secretariat defined that those approved would only have priority in the assignment of classes.

With the new rule, those who were approved with the highest score in the competition received priority to choose the classes they wanted to take in 2024. In previous years, this was reserved for teachers with the longest experience in the network, that is, those with more Classroom experience.

As some of those approved with the highest scores may have positions in other education systems or schools, many did not want to take on classes as temporary teachers. Thus, several classes were not intended for a professional.

In a note, the ministry informed that it changed the rules at the beginning of January due to the competition, but did not explain the reason for the change. The secretariat stated that the assignment of classes that remain without a teacher even after the start of the school year will be done this week.

When asked, the secretariat did not answer what percentage of classes are without a teacher.

“Due to the assignment of teachers to other positions and the withdrawal of other teachers, the assignment of these classes will be made this week”, he said in a statement.

The Tarcísio government also stated that “no student will be harmed”. “In the absence of a teacher in any unit and at any time, all teachers who are designated as vice-directors, coordinating teachers, as well as professionals who work on secretariat projects, can act as substitute teachers”, he said.

On this first day of the school year, in some schools, teachers had to teach more than one class at the same time. There were cases in which students found their schedule vacant due to a lack of professionals.

This is what happened at the Jardim Jacira state school, in Itapecerica da Serra, which on Thursday morning had seven fewer teachers than necessary on the staff.

“It’s a scenario of total precariousness, the year has barely started and teachers are already having to work their hardest to make up for the lack of staff”, says Mariana Lopes, 39, who is the mother of a 6th year student at the unit.

In addition to seeing her daughter’s school without enough staff, Mariana is also a teacher and was left without classes this year, even though she was approved in the competition. “I was so happy when I was approved, because, as temporary workers, we don’t have any guaranteed rights. But the joy was short-lived, because there’s no point in being approved and not having a job.”

A physical education teacher, she was not paid during the month of January because she did not have classes assigned and after the state government terminated the temporary workers’ contracts. “I haven’t had a salary for a month and I don’t know when I’ll get it.”

Marisa Santos, 35, was also scared when her son arrived home this Thursday after the first day of school. In the first year of high school at a state school in Campinas, the boy said he spent two hours in the courtyard due to lack of a teacher.

“Every year it’s the same thing, there are never enough teachers. The boy goes to school and at best attends two or three classes a day. It’s all very precarious,” said the mother.

The lack of hiring staff for more than a decade in the state causes a shortage of professionals available to work in schools every year. Although the secretariat has resorted to hiring temporary workers, this type of contract leaves teachers without ties to the units.

For the first time since he started working as a temporary teacher in the São Paulo network, Manoel Fernandes Silva is without classes. He has worked in state schools for 13 years as a sociology and philosophy teacher. In recent years, he has had to work in up to four different units to get a sufficient number of classes.

“I passed the exam and I thought I would finally end this precarious life of having to run around a thousand schools. But I passed, I have been teaching for many years and so far I haven’t been called”, he says.

“The priority criteria are not clear and there is no transparency”, says the teacher, who also did not receive a salary in February and says he was afraid of going a month without payment.

Since the new award criteria were published, teachers have criticized the measure, as they question the results of the selection process. Apeoesp, the category’s main union, even filed a lawsuit and obtained an injunction that suspended the attribution with this new rule for a few days.

The union alleges that several candidates had their marks reduced to zero in the practical stage, a video lesson, due to an error on the part of the competition organization. The injunction was revoked after Vunesp, responsible for the selection process, presented an explanation.

Now, the union has presented a representation to the Public Ministry, asking that the case be investigated.

In a note, in addition to informing that it will continue with the attribution process this Friday (16), the state secretariat also said that it “works continuously with the recognition and appreciation of teaching activity”.

Although the contract was signed last year, under the management of secretary Renato Feder, the selection process was authorized at the beginning of 2022, still under the management of former governor João Doria.