The folly of moving thousands of teachers around the country at the start of every school year, again has helped cause the postponement of the start of many classes - with some schools failing to open at all.
Hundreds of teachers and other school employees were not in place today as term started. Heads already have complained about being short-staffed and many schools have been unable to open until the situation is resolved.
Schools in Olivais, Braga and several schools across the county of Évora have remained closed: this is not an exhaustive list.
Filinto Lima, president of the Association of School Directors and Public Schools, said that the effort from Ministry of Education, to hire more than two thousand auxiliaries for primary and secondary schools, simply is not enough.
"Few schools are satisfied with the number of employees they have," he growled.
Lima appealed to Finance Minister, Mario Centeno, "Try to realise, once and for all, that education indeed is very important. It is important that words be turned into actions. We should take a definitive step in this problem so that, every year, the start of the school year ceases to be news."
"It is urgent to change the law to allow the hiring of workers to replace those who have been on sick leave for months or years."
At the schools that have managed to open, thousands of students will not be able to attend classes in all subjects as teaching places still need to be filled despite having had three months over the summer to get this right.
The Minister of Education, Tiago Brandão Rodrigues, was interviewed by Público and decided to waffle.
The minister underlined the changes in this school year and the flexibility and autonomy of curricula in all schools, arguing that "you can not think of school success if you think that all schools are all the same and all students are all the same."
The minister appears not yet to have understand that the primary precursor to running a school it that there are sufficient staff in place to open the doors and take classes.
