"What could happen in the next academic year is that we return to confrontations, things that we did not want to happen, but, if the Ministry of Education understands this way, we will have no other way out than confrontation and moving towards what the Constitution and the law reserve us", said the president of Sinprof, Guilherme Silva, to Lusa this Monday.
Admitting a possible shutdown in the 2024-2025 academic year, which begins next September, the person in charge recalled that there are pending issues, which are included in the minutes of the joint agreement signed with the guardianship in December 2022.
Teachers with higher technical qualifications, but with salaries of average technicians, higher technicians still in the general civil service regime and the hiring of new teachers without promotions for those already in the system are the issues that concern the union.
According to Guilherme Silva, the Ministry of Education intends to use the vacancies left by retired or deceased colleagues to hire new teachers and not for promotion, "as long as there is understanding on this".
"If the Ministry of Education decides to move forward on this path, we will have no other option" than confrontation, he insisted, calling on the executive to resolve the issues on which there is already an understanding.
Guilherme Silva also portrayed the "dark" path of the academic year that ended, highlighting the excess of students in the classroom – between 80 and more than 100 students – especially in primary education, schools under trees and in rubble, the lack of manuals and of school meals, plus the lack of motivation among teachers.
"They are unmotivated because the salary they earn is not compatible with the performance of their role, inflation, the high cost of living", he indicated.
The union leader also criticized the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, for having approved a 100 percent salary supplement for teachers in the higher education subsector, to the detriment of general education teachers, considering this to be an "ingredient for marked dissatisfaction" in the sector.
He challenged the executive to be "more courageous and bold" in order to allocate a budget of approximately 20 percent to education in the 2024 Budget, highlighting that the 5 percent or 6 percent currently allocated has not been fully implemented.
"If the President [of the Republic] has allocated additional budgets to the defense and security forces, why not also allocate it to the education sector?", he asked, recalling that the sector needs around 80 thousand teachers and that "there are teachers doing the work of two or three people".
The president of Sinprof, who also lamented the lack of dialogue between the President of the Republic and the trade unions, considered that the education sector is currently "subalternized", because it is focused on "commodification", promoted, allegedly, by country leaders.
"We are in this situation due to the commercialization of education. In Luanda around 80 percent of schools are private. And who are the owners of these schools? We know who they are. Some of the government officials are either majority shareholders or owners of these schools, everything is said", he accused, adding that these "are pulling the heat on their sardines, harming the children of shirtless people".
