Context of teacher education in Portugal in the transition from the 19th to the 20th century

The first initiatives to create in the district of Leiria⁴, a school to train teachers for primary education, date back to the end of the nineteenth century. In March 1896 it is already possible to identify the existence or the forerunner of a school for primary teaching in the pages of the newspaper O Districto de Leiria⁵, when he mentions that, “At the end of the secondary education exams, the exams for primary teaching will begin in the Lyceus, whose program is to be published shortly” (1896, n. 729). These qualification exams were carried out at the Lyceum, under the authority of the respective rectors, who were also the district commissioners of studies.

But it was on November 17, 1897, in accordance with the General Regulation of Primary Education, approved by the Royal Decree of June 18, 1896, that the creation of qualification courses for the Magisterium in the country was authorized and that the Leiria City Council asked the government to create a mixed qualification school for the Primary Teaching (^{CABRAL, 1993}). The decree of creation was published in the Diário do Governo on February 26, 1898. However, the appointment of personnel and installation depended on the approval of the City Council for the supply of the house and school material.

The training of future primary school teachers is contained in the Regulation approved by the Royal Decree of June 18, 1896, determined by the Law of December 22, 1894. Part II of the Regulation contains the title of Complementary Education and Qualification Courses for the Magisterium. In the opinion of the newspaper Correio de Leiria⁶ (1898, n. 160), the request for the creation of a primary teaching school had fallen into oblivion and would not come out of it without the Baron of Salgueiro's⁷. interference with the City Council⁸. The aforementioned newspaper concludes that “the benefits that the school brings to this city are in everyone's minds”.

The spirit to which the Correio de Leiria refers was not without reason, since, in the district of Leiria, in 1890, out of a total population of 217,278 inhabitants, 188,530 were illiterate (86%). Among the literate population, 2,391 men and 1,694 women could read, and 17,800 men and 6,863 women could read and write (CORREIO DE LEIRIA, 1895, n. 10)⁹. The number of literate men was practically triple that of women. There were in Portugal and adjacent islands four million illiterates in a population of five million inhabitants (CORREIO DE LEIRIA, 1897, n. 137).

It is in this context that the training of primary teachers assumes a strategic place in the fight against illiteracy in Portugal, although in the first decades of the 20th century, the teaching career did not present itself in a way to attract many young people interested in the teaching profession, mainly considering the wages issue, which were insufficient in view of the cost of living, as pointed out by ^{Adão (1992}). In Leiria, the qualification course for primary teaching was initially held at the District School of Qualification for Primary Teaching (DSQPT), from October 17, 1899, to August 9, 1902. From October 22, it becomes Leiria Teaching Education School (TES). With this change, the school sought to adapt to the reform of primary education in 1901, inserting itself in the context of expansion of normal education and primary teaching schools in the country.

Between 1887 and 1901, several schools for the training of primary teachers were created in Portugal: Escola Mista Distrital de Habilitação para o Magistério Primário de Braga (1897/1898); Escola Distrital de Habilitação para o Magistério Primário de Castelo Branco (1897/1898); Escola de Habilitação para o Magistério Primário de Portalegre (1898); Escola Distrital de Habilitação para o Magistério Primário no Algarve (1899); Escola de Habilitação para o Magistério Primário na Madeira (1900); Escola Normal de Coimbra (1901). (^{PINTASSILGO, et al., 2012}).

Regarding the TES, studies carried out by ^{Cabral (1993}) indicate that it operated in the house owned by Luis Maria Xavier de Carvalho. In 1904, the council agreed to move the school to a building owned by D. Maria José Pimentel, located on Rua do Liceu. The adaptation works for the full functioning of the school were to be completed by the end of 1910.¹⁰

Due to the difficulties encountered in its installation, in 1914 the TES began to operate in the former Paço Episcopal, whose project for the adaptation of part of the main floor was signed by architect Ernesto Korrodi¹¹. The Escola Central Feminina, in turn, also known as the Official Primary School¹², intended for the pedagogical practice of future primary teachers, started to function at the Santana Convent, then at the Portela Convent. On August 23, 1916, both the EST and the attached school were transferred to the Convento São Estevão (^{CABRAL, 1993}).

During the 20th century, the history of the Convent of São Estevão was closely linked to the training of primary teachers, serving as the headquarters for four official teaching institutions: Teaching Education School (1916-1919), Escola Primária Superior (1919-1926), Escola do Magistério Primário (1959-1986), and the Escola Superior de Educação de Leiria, formally created in 1979, as an autonomous school, starting its teaching activities in 1985. In April 1987, it was integrated into the Instituto Politécnico de Leiria. Currently, it is called Escola Superior de Educação e Ciências Sociais (ESECS), integrated to the Politécnico de Leiria ¹³.

The last change in the name of the TES occurred in 1919, as part of the Leonardo José Coimbra Reform which, on July 1, 1919, transformed the former Teaching Education Schools of Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra into Upper Primary Schools (UPS)¹⁴, as well as those of Qualification for the Teaching of Primary Education in the offices of other districts in the country (^{SILVA, 2012}, ^{BARREIRA, 2017}). Of short duration, the Upper Primary Schools were closed by Decree no. 9354 of 7^th January 1924, signed by the Minister António Sérgio and reopened by Decree no. 10248 of 4^th November 1924. Relegated to the status of Institutes of Education and technical preparation of a regional character, the UPS were abolished on June 30, 1926¹⁵, during the Military Dictatorship (1926-1933) that preceded the Estado Novo regime (1933-1974).

In the period under study, Leiria was the capital of a district with regional asymmetries, where structural changes associated with demographic growth were felt; to an emerging industrialization, revitalizing the craft hubs; the implementation of a road communication network; to the dynamics provided by the railway axes, linking Coimbra to Lisbon, particularly the Western line that crossed the district, connecting the main urban centers. Since the end of the 19th century, the spa and summer economy brought to the district another perspective of progress and urbanism.

Leiria was also the capital of a municipality where the urban core constituted a fundamental hub for commerce and administration, serving an agricultural and handmade territorium, whose inhabitants regularly traveled to the city to sell and stock up on essential goods. If the growing schooling by the district made the convenience of a district school for teacher training felt, the municipal dynamics mainly involved ensuring a continuation of studies oriented towards the economy and local services. At national level, the standardization of teacher training was organized in district schools. But the municipalities, including those that were district capitals, did not want to give up the offer of continuity schools that complemented and somehow specialized the adolescents and adults who had passed the primary education level. Teaching Education Schools or Upper Primary Schools? It was mainly in the district capitals that this dilemma was posed, dividing the leaders' opinions. Leiria, on the one hand, dealt with a Complementary School that ensured both modalities, but the difficulties proved to be insurmountable.

From de District School of Qualification for Primary Teaching to the Teaching Education School (First Stage)

The date of October 10^th, 1899 can be considered a milestone in the history of teacher education in the district of Leiria. That day began the enrollment period at the newly created District School for Qualification for Primary Teaching (DSQPT), located at the district headquarters. At the time, 36 students enrolled for the academic year 1899-1900, 18 females and 18 males, a number that would be maintained in the following year, however, with a significant decrease in the year 1901-1902. Enrollment was subject to the payment of a fee in the amount of 3190 reis. Most came from other districts, such as Coimbra (06), Leiria (20) and Santarém (10). The female students were on average 19 years old (between 16 and 23) and the male students were 18 years old (between 16 and 26)¹⁶.

The first session of the DSQPT school council was opened on October 17^th, 1899, under the presidency of director Luiz José de Oliveira Júnior, who remained in the position for over 20 years. The session was attended by Professors Manuel Ignácio de Boaventura, José Mauricio D'Oliveira, Ms. Elvira Barreto de Perdigão, Ms. Elvira Júlia da Costa Almeida Campelo Ferraz de Boaventura and António Lopes Teixeira, who also remained at the institution until its closing in 1926, already as a Superior Primary School.

In the photograph below, probably taken in the first session, the principal can be seen sitting in the center, next to teachers Elvira Perdigão and Elvira Boaventura, followed by the three teachers from the attached school. In the second row, the female students are seated and, in the last, the male students are standing. It is worth noting the meaning of collective photography as a symbol of the hierarchical collective, but gathered in the institution. The ritual of collective photography has become an institutional icon, as a memory and as proof of a moment, of an era.

Source: M|I|MO - Museu da Imagem em Movimento (2019).

Figure 1 Faculty and students [1899]¹⁷  

Regarding the first session, administrative issues gained importance, with several decisions having been taken. First, it was defined that the school council meetings would be held on the first day of each month. The director also proposed that the council decide which of the teachers would govern the school attached to the DSQPT and distribute the subjects of the 1st year of the complementary course¹⁸ and qualification for primary teaching. After a brief discussion, the teachers agreed that teacher D. Elvira Julia da Costa Almeida Campelo Ferraz de Boaventura would be responsible for conducting the annexed school¹⁹. Regarding the functioning, it was established that the time of entry into the school would be at 10 am and the period of study for school exercises would last four hours a day. After the first two classes, there would be a period of rest for students.

This, in fact, is a characteristic school practice that lasts until today, having become characteristic of the school world, which is the organization by subjects distributed over the days, weeks and months, with a determined start and end time and with limited duration. In the conception of ^{Escolano (2008}), the dimension of time at school²⁰ constitutes one of the structural and structuring elements of school culture. Structural, because it sets the order of the institution through calendar times. Structuring, due to its influence and interaction with other elements that make up school life - such as space, curriculum, the behavior of subjects, among others. In the first session, the distribution of DSQPT subjects was established as follows by the teachers:

The following sessions note a regularity of functioning, but a year later, on August 26, 1900, the director called on to a meeting on an extraordinary basis to discuss the letter received from the district primary education commissioner, in which they were requested to be named the difficulties faced in the execution of the Regulation of Primary Education of 1886, in the part pertaining to the qualification courses for the teaching career. In response to the letter, the council highlighted eight points, which corresponded to issues relating to the organization of the school, as was the case in normal schools. Teachers had doubts about the functioning and pedagogical organization of the DSQPT.

An important step was taken through Decree No. 8 of December 24^th, 1901, signed by the minister and secretary of state for business in the Kingdom, Hintze Ribeiro, which reformed primary education. As noted by ^{Afonso and Azevedo (2012}), the decree “[...] is possibly the initiator of the modern network of “teacher preparation”, highlighting wide-ranging concerns, ranging from the building to inspection, without neglecting the programs, the teachers, among others” (p. 69).

In Nóvoa's analysis (1987), the 1901 reform reflects the optimism regarding the school's potential, so characteristic of the Portuguese pedagogical thought at that time. So much so, that he highlights the article that deals with the qualification for the exercise of teaching. Qualification that started to depend, obligatorily, on the approval in the Teaching Education Schools course or qualification for the Primary Teaching²¹. From that moment on, no person could become a primary school teacher without passing an exam in a normal school (NÓVOA, 1987). The author refers to the process that started with and after the 1878 Reform, which provided that the qualification exams for teaching were carried out, whenever possible, in normal schools. This principle was materialized in the 1901 Reformation²².

In this reform, the course of normal schools and qualification for primary teaching starts to comprise the following subjects: 1st) Portuguese Language and Literature; 2) French Language; 3rd) Practical Arithmetic; 4th) Elementary Geometry; 5th) Morals and Christian doctrine. Sacred History; 6th) General notions of Chronology, Geography and History, with a special focus on Portugal; 7th) Calligraphy. Linear and Ornate Design. Copying Maps; 8th) Rights and Duties of Citizens. Notions of Commercial and Agricultural bookkeeping; 9th) Elements of Natural Cciences and their Applications to Agriculture and Hygiene. Elementary notions of Practical Agriculture; 10th) Pedagogy and, in particular, Methodology for Primary Education. Portuguese Primary School Legislation; 11th) Elementary Gymnastics; 12º) Rudimentary notions of Music, Performance of Choirs; 13º) in the Teaching Education female schools and in the Habilitation Schools, Needlework and Handicrafts, and Practical Rules for Cutting in General.

Every year, the Government, meeting the needs of the primary teaching, would set the maximum number of students, of both sexes, and these could enroll in the 1st year of normal schools and qualification for teaching²³. To enroll in these schools, a minimum age of 16 was required and a maximum age of 25 was allowed²⁴.

As for the number of teachers, in normal schools there would be seven effective male teachers or seven effective female teachers and, in habilitation schools, three male teachers and two effective female teachers. The appointment would be made by the Government, through public examinations, with candidates being admitted to the examination with qualifications for teaching and preferably primary school teachers who had more than five years of good and effective service in the teaching profession²⁵. At DSQPT, the staff of teachers was made up of five effective teachers between the years 1899 and 1910, according to the number attributed by the legislation in force to schools for teaching qualification.

The decree also regulates the disciplinary rules. It was expressly prohibited for male and female teachers from normal schools and those qualified for primary teaching, for example, to direct or exercise, directly or indirectly, and under any pretext, private teaching education. And when any male teacher or female teacher in teaching education or qualifying schools taught doctrines contrary to the religion of the State, morals and good customs and the Laws of the Kingdom, or had committed any infamous or seriously scandalous crime, he would be suspended by the Government until further resolution taken according to the legal terms. The indicted male or female teacher would have ensured the right to be heard before the final resolution²⁶.

The maintenance of teaching education schools, as well as the buildings, furniture and pedagogical material of the qualification schools for primary teaching, as well as their cleaning and conservation, were under the mandatory responsibility of the respective Municipal Councils. However, the requests for materials and articles essential for the school's functioning were not always met, the scarcity of resources was recurrent in this period. An example of this was the suspension of pensions and subsidies for books for students from teaching education schools, with only students who already received the aid prior to the publication of the decree being benefited²⁷.

Also in compliance with the Decree of December 24, 1901, on October 22, 1902, that is, after three years of operation, the DSQPT is renamed Leiria Teaching Education School (TES). As mentioned, that decree consigned a reform of primary education, determining, among other aspects, that the qualification for the exercise of primary teaching takes place upon approval in the course of normal schools or qualification for primary teaching²⁸. Between 1900 and 1902, the DSQPT graduated 80 students as primary school teachers. In this last year, the number of graduates had doubled compared to the previous year, demonstrating the prestige of the school in the community of the municipality and the district of Leiria, in addition to being a novelty, which would partly justify the interest in the teaching profession.

In accordance with the new legislation, in 1904, some subjects were added and others reformulated, but the course remained for two years. At that time, the institution received two new permanent professors, Antonio Maria da Silva Barreto and Elvira Barreto de Figueiredo Perdigão, who were already working at the Attached School. The distribution of subjects was as follows:

In the end, there were 16 subjects distributed by five teachers, two less than the 1901 Decree for teaching education schools. In the organization of the curriculum, practical activities gained importance, being considered as a factor in expanding the cultural and scientific repertoire of student-masters³⁰. However, tour classes could only be held with superior authorization. On May 1st, 1908, the school board sent, for the first time, an official letter to the Directorate of Public Education, requesting authorization for the Natural Sciences teacher, Silva Barreto, to take two or three school trips with the students until the end of that period. academic year, given the usefulness of such tours in the training of student-masters.

For ^{Magalhães (2010}, p. 39), “In the abstract, where the teacher was, was the class, which, consequently, should be taught in accordance with the contexts and availability of material”. Although, as the author mentions, a study visit, for example, was interpreted by the master as a class, there was not always an adequate installation for the student to fulfill his/her task.

The Teaching Education School and the Republic: "Man is worth, above all, for the education he has" (Second phase)

From 1910 on, with the establishment of the Republic³¹, education assumes a central role in the new government (NÓVOA, 1987; ^{CANDEIAS, 2005}; ^{MAGALHÃES, 2010}). In the understanding of ^{Magalhães (2010}), the Republic favored the deepening of pedagogical science as well as giving a renewed meaning to school culture, that is,

Expressions that made it useful and intelligible to the population in general were added to the daily life of the school, implementing the exercises and school applications and making public the rituals of an adequate symbol to the regimentation of the educational system (^{MAGALHÃES, 2010}, p. 367).

For the director of TES, Professor Luis José de Oliveira Júnior, the Republic symbolized a new era in the country. At the school council session on October 10th, 1910, the director took the opportunity to salute the new flag of the Fatherland, stating that with the same loyalty and dedication with which he had served the previous regime, he would also serve the new Portuguese Republic. He highlighted the participation of Professor Antonio Maria da Silva Barreto, who according to him was a former democrat sincerely dedicated to the cause of the Republic and who had just been honored by the provisional government with the position of substitute civil governor. He then asked Professor Barreto to speak to welcome the new regime, which was enthusiastically responded to by all the vocals (teachers) present. This, even, can be considered one of the rare moments of political manifestation registered in the minutes of the school council between the years 1899 and 1919.

On December 6, 1910, EEN had already increased the duration of the course to three years. In this session, the arrival of one more teacher, José Marques Castilho, was announced. As for the distribution of timetables and subjects, it was as follows:

With 70% of the population illiterate, the first governments of the Republic initiated a series of reforms in the various levels of education, such as the 1911 Reform of Child Education, Primary Education and Teaching Education (Decree No. 5.504, of March 29), signed by the Ministry of the Interior, Antonio José de Almeida. The emphasis on education is immediately mentioned in the preamble to the reform report, when it says that man is worth, above all, for the education he has. For legislators:

To educate a society is to make it progress, make it a harmonious and conjugated set of individual forces, which in turn are fully developed. And one can only make progress and develop a society, making the continuous, incessant and persistent action of education reach the human being, under the triple aspect: physical, intellectual and moral.³².

In the educational field, the Decree of 1911 established, in principle, the creation of Upper Primary Schools, which would only actually occur from 1919 onwards. With that decree, the government intended to “face up to” the problem of popular education. One of the difficulties in organizing the “great mass of the population”, according to the legislator, was the precarious economic condition of the teachers.

As for the Teaching Education Schools, although there was still a lot to be done, the government considered the need to transform them, as part of which had almost empty staff, and to successively create schools, staffed by teachers. Teaching Education, asserts the legislator, would increasingly raise the intellectual level of the teachers, making them fit for their social mission. In this way, the Teaching Education School comes to meet the demands of modern pedagogy³³. On this issue, ^{Fernandes (1979}) highlights that one of the most characteristic aspects of the Portuguese pedagogical movement during the 1st Republic is its vigorous impulse towards the constitution of a scientific pedagogy.

The government also adopted administrative and pedagogical decentralization processes and in the inspection of norms, improving Teaching Education Schools and increasing teachers' salaries, aiming to provide them with independence in line with the demands of the public conscience in Portugal at the time. However, according to Nóvoa (1987), the balance of the 1911 Reform is quite disappointing, since the two boldest projects, such as primary education and decentralization, failed to be effectively established. The discrepancy between the reform ideas and the socioeconomic reality of the country, as well as the social bases of the Republic, prevented the implementation of most projects related to education, concludes the author.

With the advent of the Republic, religion was also banned from school³⁴. This discipline should be dealt with in the “home corner”, because the State, respecting everyone's freedom, should not interfere. The morality of schools is based on the precepts that regulate justice between men and the dignity of citizens. The school, from then on, becomes neutral. Neither for God nor against God. All religions were banned from it, except the religion of duty, which will be the eternal cult of this new civic church of the people, as stated in the preamble of the decree³⁵. In Libânia ^{Xavier's (2002}) examination, secularism is a republican principle par excellence and a mark of positivist scientism. Therefore, as she herself says, the school environment must be above religious beliefs and disputes, respecting the integrity of the student's developing personality, the disturbing pressure of the school when used as an instrument of propaganda for sects and doctrines.

In 1913, the government ordered the publication of Law No. 12, of 7 July, which created the Ministry of Public Education and on which all education services were dependent, with the exception of professional schools under the Ministries of War and the Navy, and the respective inspection³⁶. In the evaluation of Nóvoa (1987b), this legislation, which remained in force until 1918, constitutes the first experience of decentralization of the republican government. The following year, Law No. 233, July 7, 1914, which reforms normal primary education, took effect. This legislation, however, was short-lived, being suspended in June 1916.

Four years after the publication of the Decree of 1911, the director of the TES informed the school council, in the session of May 27, 1915, that he had received a circular from the Ministry of Public Instruction instructing him to communicate compliance with the provisions contained in the circular. of the General Secretariat of December 30, 1914, referring to the worship of the flag and the further development of civic education. In the circular, the Ministry of Public Instruction states that:

It is a desire, in fact, that it be based on the moral formation of the new generations, the most cherished love for the country and the Republic, and a strong civic feeling that is quite effective in combating the denationalizing influences that have operated in Portuguese society for some decades. Teachers should also not forget this fundamental truth: “to love the Fatherland is to love the Republic, since the new institutions were implemented by the will of the Nation and by the Nation has been maintained and defended³⁷.

In the view of the republicans “the orientations of nationalist and civic content were part of moral education. It was through the voice of teachers, individually or associated, that the pedagogical, moral and political commitment came to be proclaimed in various circumstances” (^{MAGALHÃES, 2010}, p. 364). In addition to the civic sentiment and rituals established by the republican government, the school board of the TES is also faced with the growing number of students who missed the year in 1916 due to absences or did not obtain the grade to continue.

Another problem faced was indiscipline. In the session of July 5, 1917, the president informed the council that he had ordered the collection of a 2nd grade student of the course, Antonio Henriques Baptista, of an investigation report for disciplinary infraction due to a complaint filed against him, on June 25 of this year, by teacher Elvira Barreto de Figueiredo Perdigão. The council, after examining the aforementioned record, considering at that the school no one had ever committed any serious misconduct like that and, on the contrary, discipline had always been maintained there, in order to safeguard the discipline and prestige of the school in the local community, decided to apply the penalty of one year of expulsion. Regarding disciplinary measures, Fernandes (2005) draws attention to the fact that the school is also characterized by being a normalization structure, that is, “The disciplinary code, punishments and rewards are part of this structure, put into operation by teachers and by other authorities whose specific powers are, in the final analysis, a delegation of the social body” (p.2).

The insufficiency of the pedagogical practices provided to students was also the subject of intense discussion by the school council. At the session of May 10, 1918, the director communicated to the council the recognition, by the 1st Division of Primary and Teaching Education, of the inadequacy of the practice provided to students in Teaching Education Schools by the primary schools that are annexed to them. Thus, he had been ordered, in a circular, to make an agreement with the inspector responsible for that school circle so that students could receive the practice they so needed in the city's primary schools. The council was of the opinion that, in addition to two students, they would start practicing daily, as in that one, eight more in the two central schools of the city, four of them in the male and four in the female.

Having been taken these deliberations, the director informed the council that, on behalf of the school's teaching staff, he had telegraphed, last December 18, to the Minister of Instruction, meaning to him just indignation and true sorrow for the monstrous attack of which the illustrious President of the Portuguese Republic, Dr. Sidónio Bernardino Cardoso da Silva Pais³⁸, had been the victim, on the 14th of that month. He then pondered that, since that first session was held by the council after the crime that had hit Portugal and its supreme leader, one of the first statesmen of modern times and one of the most glorious figures in the country's history, he proposed that, in the respective minutes, a vow of deep feeling was expressed for the irreparable loss of the illustrious extinct, and also as a very sincere tribute paid to the nostalgic memory of such a prestigious and worthy citizen³⁹.

This moment represented, in Goulão's (nd) view, the great ordeal of primary teacher training schools that precipitated with the events of the political-military coup by Sidónio Pais, which threw chaos in almost all of them, many of them functioning for the purpose assessments of entrance exams and course completion. This reality was also experienced at the EEN in Leiria. Until 1915, with the exception of 1906, the number of graduates was below 10, and from 1916 to 1918, the school had graduated 54 students, a number lower than the first three years of operation of the former District School of Qualification for Teaching (DSQPT). The fluctuation in the number of enrollments was a constant in this period. In 1917, 24 students enrolled in the first year, in 1918 only 6 and in 1919 it increased to 25.

On May 5, 1919, the Teaching Education Schools schools were transformed into Upper Primary Schools by Decree 5.504. The central axis of this reform becomes the technical training combined with general training aimed at the popular classes, a dear issue to republicans whose belief was “[...] that upper primary education (in its proposal for adapting to the local needs and local publics) would constitute an important asset for the dynamization of municipal life” (^{SILVA, 2012}, p. 64).

On the 5th of July, 1919, the council session, under the chairmanship of the director, Luis José de Oliveira Junior, was attended by Professors Elvira Barreto de Figueiredo Perdigão, António Lopes Teixeira, Joaquim Caetano, Alfredo Pereira Lavos and Plinio Ventura (physician and teacher), the director with the first two in the capacity of staff of the Teaching Education School and the last three also staff members, recently appointed teachers of the Upper Primary School. At this meeting, only issues of student grades and achievement were dealt with, as determined by the Regulation of Upper Primary Schools of 1919. However, there is nothing in the minutes about the change in the school's by-law and its new purpose. As a matter of fact, moments of discussion about legal determinations and political issues are rare, restricting the school council to the fulfillment of superior orders.

As for the transformation of the former schools of Teaching Education into Upper Primary Schools, on October 31, 1921, Professor Luis José Oliveira Junior, informs the delegate of the District Attorney in the District of Leiria that in the TES de Leiria from July 1, 1919, two courses remained that are perfectly distinct and independent of each other, namely: Teaching Education Course for qualification in the primary teaching profession for students enrolled in it on the date of publication of the decree, which would expire after two years of transitional period, and the upper primary course, starting in the current year 1921.

This political deliberation aimed to distinguish two purposes for the pursuit of studies: preparation for primary teaching; technical and professional training to respond to the needs of the economy and society at local and regional levels.

Final considerations

Between 1899 and 1902, the qualification course for primary teaching was subordinated to the District School of Qualification for the Primary Teaching of Leiria, and from 1902 to 1919 to the Teaching Education School. However, the changes in the by-law brought about by the teaching reforms that changed not only the designation, but above all the purpose of these schools, moving from the training of primary teachers to technical training from 1919 onwards, made the cadre of teachers if it remained unchanged until that date, only with the addition of new hires from the 1919 teaching reform. Installed in the same building (former São Estevão Seminary, between 1916 and 1926) and using the same school bookkeeping, to say that it was “the same institution” that over time was adjusting itself to the changes imposed by the different educational reforms.

Despite the oscillation in school attendance, in the number of enrollments and graduate students, the creation of the Leiria Teaching Education School represented significant changes in the educational field with resonances in the 21st century. In many documents, it was even possible to find the designation Teaching Education School of the District of Leiria, to refer to its geographic scope. Its functioning in the first decade of the 20th century was very similar to that of the qualification schools for primary teaching, mainly with regard to the number of teachers and course duration. There is an institutional regularity, internally and in relation to local and regional aspects. Leiria society was attentive to education, particularly to the Teaching Education School, on which evolution and standardization depended, to a large extent.

Further investigations regarding the socio-economic profile of the students and the professional insertion of graduates from the Leiria Teaching Education School, who they were and what was the training of teachers who taught at the school, the role of attached schools in the training of future teachers, as well as the challenges faced by women in teaching and secularism in education, for example, would bring important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the area of the history of education in Portugal and, specifically, in the history of local education.