The measure was announced this Thursday by the tutelage. The executive decree, signed by the newly appointed Minister for Education, Luisa Grilo, follows the exceptional measures announced on Wednesday to combat the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The suspension of school activities will come into effect from 24 March and will continue for 15 days. This decision can be automatically extended depending on the behaviour of the pandemic.
The decision to suspend teaching activities aims to "prevent the possible spread of the Covid-19 pandemic within educational institutions in the subsystems of pre-school education, general education, vocational technical secondary education, pedagogical secondary education and adult education" in public and private schools.
The 15-day suspension is automatically extended for an equal period of time if there is no provision to the contrary.
In the memo, the tutelage also shows that teachers are responsible for assigning tasks for students to do at home. Teachers should also be available to help students with these tasks.
The school year 2019/2020 has more than 10 million pupils enrolled. There are more than 180,000 teachers.
