The Government of Portugal demands the return of 348,563.70 euros to a false Mathematics teacher who He taught without a degree for decadesin a case that is in the hands of the courts. The case was uncovered thanks to three anonymous complaints presented to the General Inspection of Education and Science (IGEC), which raised doubts about the alleged qualifications of the false teacher, a source from the Portuguese Ministry of Education informed Efe this Thursday.
The fake presented herself as a graduate in Mathematics from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon and he said that he had a master’s degree from the University of Madeira in teaching that subject. According to the CNN Portugal television network, the woman He was teaching for thirty years in a school in Margem Sul (on the outskirts of Lisbon) and who went on to write Mathematics manuals that, he stressed, are still used in several schools by 11 and 12 year old students.
As a result of the complaints, the IGEC began an investigation in April 2022 and found “strong indications” of an “infraction”, for which a disciplinary process began against the worker and in parallel he filed a criminal complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office, indicated the Ministry source. According to the authorities, “the existence of disciplinary infraction on the part of the worker and her obligation to return to the State the amount of 348,563.70 euros that she obtained illegitimately, but the sanction of dismissal was proposed.
The Ministry then dismissed the teacher in September 2023, but she requested precautionary measures to the Administrative and Fiscal Court of Almada (on the outskirts of Lisbon), which partially agreed with him, since he did not oppose his dismissal but opposed the payment of that amount because it was considered “unfounded”. For this reason, the Education Ministry decided to appeal to demand the return of that amount both through criminal proceedings and through administrative procedures.
The Ministry source explained that the teacher remained at the same school for years, so “she was less exposed to analysis mechanisms and verification of documents.” And he admitted that this case shows “the fragility” of the Ministry of Education’s information system, especially with regard to the state of the teachers’ biographical records. In that sense, he stressed that the digitization of that data and its verification are underway as part of the process of recovery of teachers’ service times and it is hoped that it will be completed soon
