The fevered melting pot of the last couple of weeks has extended now to students, who closed schools today in Lisbon calling for “better conditions in education”, and quite a bit more.
A day after “horrible results” in early years’ assessment tests were highlighted by the Association of Portuguese Teachers, hundreds of older pupils mounted a protest that seemed to encompass everything: the failings of education, the rising cost of living, the housing crisis, the climate crisis and (a new one) the sending of their parents’ resources to invest in war.
Protestor Santiago Carrilho told Lusa: “We have the cost of living increasing all the time, cost of housing going up and up, schools without conditions. They are destroying our future, and Luís Montenegro has decided to close his eyes to what is happening in the country.
Raul Noetzold, another pupil and part of the Chumbado.PT movement that began during the height of the national exams ‘chaos’, explained that the schools Escola Artística António Arroio and Liceu Camões, were “blocked off, without classes, and with the support of teachers and non-teaching staff, because this is a cause that affects everyone, not just young people.”
According to Esquerda.net, more than simply a symbolic blockade, the students’ objective is to “plant a seed and expand blockades to schools across the country”, as well as mobilize people for the demonstrations that are due to take place tomorrow, in various towns and cities, for the right to housing.
Source material: Esquerda.net/ Lusa
Natasha Donn
Journalist for the Portugal Resident.