“In the next two days, before minimum services, we will stop and close schools from north to south of the country. We will not be silent. We don't stop”, shouted André Pestana, during a speech made in front of the Palácio de Belém, where thousands of teachers and non-teaching staff gathered.

“The United School will never be defeated” was the slogan heard after the appeal made by André Pestana, coordinator of the union that started a strike in December in schools that will last until February.

On Friday, the ministry announced the decision to move forward with minimum services in schools from February 1, Wednesday. Therefore, STOP appeals to school workers to intensify the struggle in the first two days of next week.

According to André Pestana, the demonstration "was the biggest ever", stating that it had "more than one hundred thousand people": "If in the last demonstration (which took place two weeks ago), the police said that we were 20 thousand and after all, we were one hundred thousand, imagine how many we are today, when the police say that we are about 80 thousand”.

Teachers and non-teaching staff demand better working conditions and wages. STOP asks that all people working in schools have a raise of 120 euros to face the increase in the cost of living.

In addition to the STOP protests, there are ongoing strikes organized by SIPE and a platform made up of eight unions, which include the two largest union structures in the education sector: the National Federation of Teachers (Fenprof) and the National Federation of Education (FNE).

Yesterday's rally started around 1:00 pm in front of the Ministry of Education and ended at 6:30 pm with the demonstrators chanting "No Stop" and Victory".