Azorean schools have the necessary number of teachers to ensure the normal start of the new school year.

The assurance was provided by the Regional Director for Education and Training in a press conference on Monday.

Graça Teixeira assured that in the month of July, schools, taking into account the number of students enrolled for the next school year, made their request for teachers. Such requests, said the Regional Director, “are analysed by us in order to verify how many teachers are needed at each school, knowing that there is no student, no class without a teacher.”

Graça Teixeira also mentioned that some teachers, such as the Portuguese and History or Mathematics and Science teachers, “are qualified to teach two subjects and sometimes even more than these two subjects as there are teachers with basic training and a complementary training, such as training courses in the area of physical education or special education. These resources, with the support of the school board, are organised and distributed in accordance with the requests made.”

In addition, when one mentions the teachers who are teaching subjects that they did not teach last year, it is necessary to clarify that they did not do so “due to the decision of school board which is responsible for the service distribution” and, in this context, this body “is not acting illegally” since the “subjects that a teacher is eligible to teach have been stipulated. For example, the subject of Physical and Social Environment may be taught by a History, Geography or Science teacher.”

The Regional Director assured that all schools have the necessary number of teachers “according to the number of students,” but they cannot not “have twice the number of teachers for the number classes" because “the number of teachers assigned to each school is based on the number of classes and subjects.” 

Graça Teixeira stressed that one must bear in mind that “this year there is a decrease of about 2500 students compared to the previous year. São Miguel is the most populated island, but also the one where the decrease of students was higher. There was also a reduction of 510 students on the island of Terceira. The decrease of 2500 students in this school year corresponds to a decrease of about 100 classes, taking into account an average of 25 students per class.”

 One of the concerns of this department, reminded the Regional Director, is “to provide schools with the resources the school boards need, bearing in mind this need for rationalisation and the educational goals we wish to accomplish.”

Graça Teixeira also mentioned the fact that in the teacher application, there are teachers who chose to apply for teaching positions on one island, which looks as though “some teachers prefer to be unemployed on their island rather than working on another island.”