Non-teaching staff

The non-teaching staff of school clusters and non-clustered schools are part of the general regime of public administration, which are defined by the General Employment Law for Public Office approved by Law No 35/2014, 20 June, which regulates employment in public service.

In the past, such non-teaching staff had a specific statutory system established by Decree-Law No 184/2004, 29 July, which is not fully implemented currently.

Decree-Law No 21/2019, 30 January, defined the framework for transferring powers to local authorities regarding education. Subsequently, Despatch No 3689/2022, 29 March, regulated certain issues related to non-teaching staff, which regarded workers with a public employment contract for the position of head of school administration services and the general careers of technical assistant and operational assistant being transferred to local authority staff.

Non-teaching staff are mainly categorised as technical assistants and operational assistants in the public administration general career, involved in administrative activities, educational and auxiliary support.

Non-teaching staff are also included in the general senior staff career for the duties of psychologist as part of psychology and guidance services. This category also includes social workers, speech therapists, sociocultural staff, mediators, among others. Some non-teaching employees do not come under the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation (MECI) but rather the local municipal councils in conformity with Article 42 of Decree-Law No 21/2019, 30 January, ammended by Decree-Law No 125/2023, 26 December. To make this possible, contracts are signed between the MECI and the local councils, in agreement with Article 12 of the same Law. Decree-Law No 184/2004, 29 July, approved the legal framework regarding non-teaching staff in public non-higher education schools and establishments. One of the chapters established professional training as structural to quality schools, where all education staff played an important role. The increasing organisation of school and its ever-increasing link with the educational community generated additional complexities regarding the duties that non-teaching staff had to perform. As such, it became necessary to regulate and develop systematic vocational training to encourage these employees to offer a higher standard of quality service.

Decree-Law No 86-A/2016, 29 December, updated, developed and improved the public administration vocational training system, including non-teaching staff in schools, considering the strategic role of professional development and training in the modernisation and transformation of public administration.

School libraries and librarian teachers

The Portuguese education system has 2 706 school libraries across the various levels of education, namely in all public schools offering primary (2nd cycle, grades 5-6), lower secondary (3rd cycle, grades 7-9), upper secondary, vocational or arts education, as well as in primary schools (1st cycle, grades 1-4). Under current policy, by the end of 2027, all public primary schools will have a library. 
School libraries are flexible structures offering innovative and inclusive services, combining physical spaces with virtual learning environments, and physical document collections with digital resources; they serve as support centres for teachers’ educational activities. According to the guidelines, these should respond effectively and innovatively to contemporary educational challenges, promoting information and knowledge environments that foster the development of essential skills in a society increasingly dynamic, unpredictable, digital and global.

School libraries by type – public education system

Source: Human Resources survey 2026, School Library Network

School libraries by type – private education sector

Source: Human Resources survey 2026, School Library Network

Under Ordinance 192 A/2015, 29 June, each school cluster or individual school shall appoint between one and three teachers to perform the duties of a school librarian, depending on the number of pupils and the number of school libraries. 

The school librarian, with the support of the school library team, is responsible for managing the school library or the group of libraries within the school cluster.
Without prejudice to other duties to be defined in internal regulations, the school librarian is responsible for:
a) Providing library services to pupils within the school;
b) Promote the alignment of library activities with the objectives of the educational project of the school and with class plans;
c) Ensure the management of human resources assigned to the library or libraries; 
d) Ensure the organisation of the space and the functional and pedagogical management of the material resources assigned to the library;
e) Define and implement a policy for the management of information resources;
f) Support curricular activities and encourage the development of reading habits and practices, as well as information and media literacy, working collaboratively with all departments within the school; 
g) Support optional, extracurricular and curriculum-enrichment activities included in the activity plan or educational project of the school; 
h) Establish cooperative networks, developing partnership projects with local organisations; 
i) Implement, on an annual basis, the service evaluation procedures defined by the School Library Network Coordination Office (GCRBE) in articulation with the governing bodies of the school;
j) Represent the school library, in accordance with the internal regulations.

In each school cluster or non-clustered school, a multidisciplinary team is set up, comprising teachers, teaching assistants and any volunteers, to assist the school librarian(s).

Number of school librarians in public schools: 2022–2026

Most school librarians are teachers of Portuguese or teach in the 1st cycle of primary education (grades 1-4). 

Source: Human Resources survey 2026, School Library Network

The assistant librarian is the member of the school library team who is permanently responsible for ensuring that the library is open and running smoothly, assisting users and providing technical support. Taking into account the type and size of schools, the School Library Network recommends assigning one or two assistants to each library in primary (2nd cycle, grades 5-6), lower secondary and upper secondary schools. For primary schools (1st cycle, grades 1-4), with or without pre-school education, the number of assistants to be assigned should be determined in accordance with the number of pupils.