The Government of the Azores has submitted to the Legislative Assembly a proposal for Regional Legislative Decree to amend the Rules on the Teaching Application for Preschool, Basic Education and Secondary Education.
 
This proposal, which will now follow parliamentary procedures, stipulates the annual frequency of internal and external applications, the withdrawal of the application based on priority and the repeal of the requirement to apply for a period of least three years.
 
This document also stipulates the adequate calculation of the length of service for application purposes in the cases of teachers holding professional qualifications who have enrolled in higher education degrees, namely Master's degrees, or who have completed other courses that grant them professional qualifications to teach in the same or in a different group of recruitment.
 
The Government's proposal also includes aspects related to the evaluation of teachers as well as the retroactive effect of fixed-term contracts to the date of the respective acceptance in the cases when teachers prove they are unable to work in the school establishment where they were placed. Furthermore, the document embodies the transitional rule on the teaching applications to be held in the school years 2017/2018 and 2018/2019. It allows teachers placed in schools for a period of three years to apply for the internal applications in the priority rankings that immediately follow the priorities laid down for these applications, provided that the three-year period has not been concluded.
 
The proposal also introduced specific changes in terms of procedures to ensure the adequacy of the teaching application rules to the drafting of the Teaching Career Statute in the Autonomous Region of the Azores; the latter entered into force in 2015. The improvement of some procedures is the result of the increasing use of information and communication technologies.
 
This proposed amendment to the Rules on the Teaching Application for Preschool, Basic Education and Secondary Education was approved at the Council of the Government, held last Monday in Ponta Delgada.