A-Infos (en) Portugal, On teachers and public school situation in Portugal and the latest developments

In Portugal, due to a democratic revolution in the seventies, the educational 
system was enlarged and democratized in a way that we teachers (and students) 
had a true participation in school management at different levels (we elected 
the school direction, normally composed of 3 teachers) we had an assembly with 
the different partners in the education represented, and we had a pedagogic 
council were the majority were from delegates from each department, who were 
elected by their colleagues. ---- This was too advanced and too democratic for 
the neoliberal people who occupied the seats of power and they tried to destroy 
this semi-self-managerial system since the nineties.

Now hey arrived to make it totally bureaucratic and top down, with a choice of a 
director (one person) who will decide who he/she will pick as collaborators. 
Every department will be ruled by the people this director. The director is 
appointed in a semi-election in two steps: first there is a board who is called 
«General Council» but has  been emptied of any effective power except the one to 
choose among various candidates (they can be external ones too) who is going to 
be the school director.

In all these organs true teachers (the ones that are giving lessons every day) 
are put aside. The general council is forbidden (by law!) to have more than a 
minority proportion of teachers.

Everything happens in parallel wit a new law on teachers evaluation.
With this law they want to evaluate us, using very complicated lists of items 
each with 5 levels of achievement. they invented a special category just to have 
the task of evaluating the other teachers (colleagues evaluating other 
colleagues at the same working place, wonderful...) and these are just like the 
«kappos» (the prisoners picked to control the others in concentration camps), 
from the new concentration camps called schools. We are devoid of any right. we 
cannot even appeal if we consider the evaluation process was unfair. The 
«kappos» are theoretically under the «pedagogic inspection» control, but in 
fact, no control is in place. They can therefore make use of their new and 
arbitrary power as they wish (we can imagine the effect it has in the normal 
teachers mind: just plain terror).

All this situation has been prepared by a sort of a populist-nazi campaign 
mediatic pogrom style bashing the teachers in the mass media, as privileged, 
worst part of civil servants, who were used to do what they wanted and were 
never evaluated, and of course were fighting to keep their privileges...»

In January we began to move in assemblies, and street vigils, showing our great 
distress. Also in the blogosphere. It jumped to the media quite soon. There the 
young movement, totally out of control of union bureaucracies, was pushing 
towards a mass movement and converging all to Lisbon, in a mega march for the 
8th March. In 'extremis' the unions who had a very low profile, and only had 
made some faint actions against this vicious attack woke up and tried to gain 
control of the mass movement. And they were able to succeed. It was the biggest 
demo ever a group like the teachers had made. we must be about 150 thousand in 
all Portugal: about 100 thousand answered the call of the new movements, of the 
independent groups, of the unions and showed they didn't accept their career 
destruction and the destruction of public schools as a place for applying civil 
liberties.
After the demo, in the Easter period the unions and ministry of education made 
an aggreement memorandum. This just postponed the fight. It defused it. It was a 
criminal dissipation of potential, specially because the unions instead of using 
this semi-truce as a way to organise very well in each school, did nothing but 
pseudo-negotiating ... the model all the people were against!
Many people went off the unions. Many people began to understand that the unions 
role has been from decades to control the workers instead of being their true 
weapon against the boss or the state.

Now, the movement is amplifying and the unions were forced to «ask for the 
suspension» of this criminal «evaluation model». the independent movements 
promoted the organization of a new demo, o be held 15th November, the day after 
the official talks union-government.
But the unions in fear of being again out of control of the masses. They quickly 
and pathetically decided to have a demo the 8th, and made injurious and false 
accusations to the people organising the 15th November movement : they said 
wrongly that the demo was against the unions. It is false no movement ever said 
that. The unions are not comfortable in being sharply criticised in the open, in 
the schools, in blogs, etc... the union officials, and directions, are Stalinist 
in mentality. Yesterday I heard an hysterical member of a teachers union local 
direction to treat people (colleagues) like if they were very naughty children; 
THREATENING WITH HAVING THEIR NAMES... it is just like if we teachers were the 
union's property.
There people, are in a union post just to control us, to take our voice, to 
speak in our name but without caring what we think really. They never organise 
meetings in schools, although they could do it (it is something lawful, and it 
was rather common practice 20 years ago!).

In fact the situation is worsening day by day, because the grass-roots movement 
is very strong and not controlled by no force but the teachers force.
The bureaucratic unions are de-masked and they are putting all the movement in 
risk, just not to loose «control over the masses».
We are encouraging the rebellion at school level, to make connexion with school 
parents and general public, to explain that this is all about the quality of 
school education.
In fact, the government wants to evaluate us in confronting the obtained actual 
results by our classes (yes, yes you read well) with the results that «should» 
be statistically achieved for each level and matter course. It is done looking 
at the marks each teacher gave to hir pupils: this means that people, as they 
will not progress in the career if the results don't meet the supposed 
expectations... will very often inflate pupils results! There are many tricks to 
perform this (making very easy tests, or repeating tests until one gets «enough» 
to meet the «production» rates!). Yes, it IS incredible and happens not in an 
Orwell novel but in the European «democracy», EU member, NATO member, with a 
long history, supposedly a «civilized country».

HELP US MAKING IT KNOWN: HELP US QUESTIONING FROM YOUR COUNTRIES THE POWERS WHO 
ARE KILLING OUR PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM AND KILLING ANY CHANCE OF A DEMOCRATIC 
EVOLUTION IN THIS COUNTRY.

we need a much more practical solidarity too: we need you to ANSWER YES TO THE 
APPEAL we make for an EUROPEAN congress to be held here or in any of our countries.
http://congep.blogspot.com/

The ideal time is Easter 2009, because we have holidays in all European countries.
I am only repeating the invitation that we made in June, and subscribed also by 
various Portuguese Comrades, teachers and parents, from various groups and unions.

In solidarity,

M. B.*

*IWW 620
-- 
Colectivo Anti-Autoritário e Anti-Capitalista
de Luta de Classes, baseado em Portugal
www.luta-social.org
_________________________________________
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