Aging Alarm in Portuguese Education: Thousands of Teachers Retire

While life goes by here, the country's chronic problems always reveal themselves in one way or another. One of the most talked about issues recently is the shortage of teachers in schools and the rapid aging of staff.

According to the data shared by CNN Portugal, 3,295 teachers and kindergarten educators retired in the 2025/26 academic year. Although this number shows a slight decrease compared to the previous period, it is among the highest figures of the last decade and clearly reveals how critical the current situation is.

How Well Did the Retirement Postponement Incentive Work?

The government made a move a while ago to prevent this chaos and introduced additional monthly payment support of 750 euros gross per month to teachers who have reached retirement age if they continue to work. Frankly, this incentive did not have a bad response; When we look at the figures, we see that more than 2,000 teachers postponed their retirement and preferred to stay in the classroom during this period.

This step was put into effect as part of the "+Aulas +Sucesso" (More Lessons + More Achievement) program launched by the Ministry of National Education. There is not only an additional payment in the package; It also includes overtime wages and road/transportation supports for those who have to go to schools where there is a shortage of teachers.

We are heading towards the real big crisis

The really thought-provoking part is the research conducted for the future. A study carried out in partnership with DGEEC (General Directorate of Education and Science Statistics) and Nova School of Business and Economics shows that the system will need approximately 38,000 new teachers over the next ten years (until 2035).

The contrast is quite striking: The student population across the country is actually expected to decrease slightly in the coming years. However, the aging of the current teacher staff and the wave of retirements are progressing so rapidly that it is predicted that the number of active teachers will face a decline of around 37 percent in the next decade. It is clear that the deficit will grow much larger, especially in secondary education in branches such as Portuguese, Mathematics and Physics-Chemistry.

Although everything seems very pleasant on the street and in daily life, it is clearly felt that there are more steps to be taken in public services and education.

Source: Kate Sreenarong / News category

Photo Source: Envato Elements (Author: seventyfourimages)