Portuguese teachers at the Portuguese School in Luanda, Angola, have called a strike for Tuesday, November 4, in protest against the Portuguese Ministry of Education’s failure to pay overseas installation allowances.
According to Lusa, the Union of All Education Professionals (S.TO.P.) – a trade union active in Portugal representing workers in the education sector – is waiting until Wednesday for a response from the Ministry regarding the payments.
This strike, according to S.TO.P. spokesperson Daniel Martins, follows what was decided in Decree-Law No. 78/2025 of May 12 and Order No. 7654/2025 of July 8, which responded to the demands of teachers employed by Portuguese Schools Abroad (EPE) regarding their travel. In these documents, the Portuguese government guaranteed support for teachers’ travel, which has not yet been fulfilled.
“Some Portuguese schools abroad took the initiative to pay installation allowances, but recently, some teachers in Dili (East Timor), Luanda, and Maputo received a notification to return the amounts paid,” Martins lamented.
The strike scheduled for Tuesday came after teachers at the Portuguese School in Luanda held a plenary meeting on October 27, at which they unanimously decided to call an indefinite strike in response to “growing indignation” over the payment of installation allowances, the union explains on its website.
This strike in Angola follows the one scheduled in Dili on October 30, but which was suspended until Wednesday to give the Portuguese Ministry of Education time to respond to the request for the return of the installation allowance paid to Portuguese teachers abroad.
“In Dili, after the strike was called, the school principal took the initiative to send an email to colleagues stating that he had suspended the request for repayment of the installation allowance that had been sent previously, which was the reason for the strike,” explained Daniel Martins. “Thus, the protest was suspended, but it may be resumed if the response is not in line with what the teachers in Dili are demanding,” he added.
According to the same source, the strikes in Luanda and Maputo—the latter scheduled to begin on Thursday (6)—are similar in nature, that is, they decided to join the strike in Dili due to the “non-payment of the installation allowance to colleagues who entered competitions for a school position and did not know if they would be placed,” in accordance with what the government had decided in May this year.
Consequently, if there is no effective response from the Ministry by Wednesday, Portuguese schools in these three regions will go on strike, he reiterated.
In an attempt to contact the Ministry of Education, Lusa received no response.
