Parents required to replace staff in schools

At the Filipa de Lencastre secondary school in Lisbon, parents are going to school at lunch time to help supervise students in the 5th and 6th grades, that have to cross a street to go eat lunch at the school headquarters.  The president of the local PTA, Maria Graça Castro, explains that this solution was necessary to address the lack of teaching assistants that has been evident since the start of the school year.


At this school, the lack of teaching assistants is being filled by the parents who go to school at certain times to help monitor students.  According to the national PTA group, the Lisbon and Tejo valley areas have been most affected by the assistant shortage.  The Education Ministry and local leaders are still working to solve the problem that parents have complained about since the first of the school year, nearly 2 months ago.  When asked about this situation, the Education Ministry says that they can only help in Curriculum Enrichment Activities that are promoted by the local towns and cities in conjunction with the PTA.

A major roblem is that the lack of helpers is leavin many of the younger children, down to the 1st Grade, alone and unable to care for themselves.  Although some say the problem was worse at the first of the school year, there are still many cases in which parents are being invited to serve as non-teaching staff.