Around 1.5 million students were due to start the new school year today, but many turned up for the first day of classes to find some schools closed due to a chronic shortage of staff. Speaking to Lusa News Agency, the head of the Association of Directors of Public Schools and School Groups, Filinto Lima said there are still "schools across the country that have not opened” because of shortages of employees.

The problem is money, Mr. Lima acknowledges, arguing that [finance Minister] "Mário Centeno, who manages public money, should realise that education without employees does not work."

"Give the schools more operational assistants," Filinto Lima urged, noting that it is necessary to replace "employees who have been at home sick for months and years."

"People get sick, they get old and school is a job of great wear, because those who are there do their work and that of those who are not there," he said.

Filinto Lima acknowledged that since 2015, the Government "has already hired 2,550 employees, which was an important step, but we need a decisive, final step."