The Regional Secretary for Education and Culture announced today that the school year 2016/2017 will start on September 14 in the Azores, with the Day of ProSucesso; classes will start on the following day.
 
Avelino Meneses spoke at the beginning of the meeting of the Standing Committee of Public School Establishments, the last of this body to be in the current legislative period. The government official stressed that the end of the next school year must "necessarily reflect national choices," taking into consideration "the obligation" to follow the national calendar "due to exams and assessment tests."
 
The Secretary for Education highlighted the Government's effort in the school year now ending to provide schools with "more human resources" and "better conditions" at a time when there is a "decrease" in the number of students and the "increase in the number of teachers, more than 276."
 
According to Avelino Meneses, the increase of resources aims to strengthen what is deemed "essential," namely "preschool, elementary school, special education and structural subjects - Portuguese and Mathematics."
 
Regarding the fight against school failure, the Regional Secretary for Education and Culture said retention "is the most expensive and least effective measure." Under the implementation of ProSucesso in the school year 2015/2016, we have tested in the Azores a solution "that can help us solving this problem. In this regard, the government official revealed that it lies in "the diversion of funds to improve the student support system."
 
"The sooner the better. This is important so that early difficulties do not become structural difficulties and that the student may progress in their school path and acquire important learning," said Avelino Meneses.
 
These measures are based on the strategy outlined in ProSucesso - Azores for Education, programme for the promotion of school success. The project is "one of the most important challenges for the future on our islands" and, its implications, it should be transformed into a "truly collective project."
 
To that extent, the Regional Secretary for Education and Culture restated the urgency of building "a pact for education" that will "put a stop to so many changes of circumstances" that make the education system "vulnerable to collective ideologies, prejudice and personal bickering."
 
"It is important that the structural changes of the education system take place in wider periods, because teaching time is substantially longer than political time," said the government official.
 
In addition to provisional assessment on the implementation of ProSucesso in the school year 2015/2016, the Standing Committee of Public School Establishments will analyse other aspects concerning education in the Azores, namely the launch of the next school year.