Olá a todos,
era só para vos dizer que já consegui o certificado de QTS por equiparação directa ao estatuto de Portugal. Demorou cerca de 4 meses, com uma reclamação pelo meio portanto o processo normal deve demorar por volta dos 2 meses. Quando enviarem a papelada, escrevam também uma carta a dar algumas explicações, do género, "segue na carta certificado de habilitações emitido pela minha universidade", foquem o estágio nas disciplinas discriminadas e digam que envolveu trabalho na escola. Abaixo segue o e-mail que enviei que pelos vistos resolveu o problema de não me considerarem o certificado:
Dear Sir or Madam,
My name is João Fernandes, I am a Portuguese Science teacher and I am trying to obtain the qualified teacher status in England. As referred in the EC1 application form, I sent copies of the required copies and translations of the documents:
1. Degree certificate
2. Teacher training qualification certificate
3. Proof of Nationality
4. Change of name
As referred in the e-mail sent to you and with a confirmation reply (enclosed qts_email.pdf), in Portugal there is no teacher certificate so it was not included. The change of name document was also not required in my case.
In your 04 March 2008 letter, you state that you were unable to award QTS due to insufficient documents:
1. A copy of your degree certificate and translation
2. A copy of your teacher training qualification and translation
3. You will also need to complete part 1 of the EC1 application form as we need you date of birth
You also declared that I provided a transcript of my degree only (enclosed: jpsf_cert_lecn_eng.pdf and jpsf_cert_pt.pdf) and not a certificate and sent me back all the documents and the EC1 application form.
I disagree with your assessment of the documents, as these are copies of the degree certificate and an official translation (with extra data for abroad institutions understanding and according to the ECTS system), by the awarding institution, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (the headers are a confirmation of this, “Certificate” and “Certidão”, in Portuguese, by this University). I also insist in the fact that in Portugal, the teacher certification is obtained with a specific 5 years degree for teaching (Licenciado, equivalent to Bsc + MEd, and 299.5 ECTS) so the documents referred in points 1 and 2 overlap and are only the ones that I provided. You can see the course unit Pedagogic Traineeship, worth 60 ECTS, in the certificate I sent you, which lasted one year.
My degree gives teacher qualification in the subjects of the portuguese national curriculum of Natural Sciences, Biology, Geology and “Biology and Geology” for the years 7 to 12 (in Eurydice/Eurybase – same in the UK for KS3 and 4 + post compulsory education until the equivalent of year 12, inclusive, ISCED 2 + ISCED 3, retrieved from http://www.eurydice.org/ressources/eurydice/eurybase/pdf/0_integral/PT_EN.pdf ).
With all this stated, what should I do next?
I talked with a colleague of mine in Portugal that requested the QTS with the same kind of certificate and degree (not the same university) and obtained it without problems 3 years ago. Has anything changed since then?
I would like to suggest to the GTC for England to provide examples of documents and applications for several countries, to facilitate the application of international teachers. And of course, an online application form.
Best regards,
João Fernandes