The Regional Secretary for Education and Culture stated in Angra do Heroísmo that Azorean schools are "effectively one of the safest places for children," not only in "terms of security" but also "in many other aspects," particularly when it comes to feeding.

Avelino Meneses Spoke at the end of a hearing at the Working Group on the Analysis and Evaluation of Public Child Protection Policies, established under the Committee on Social Affairs of the Legislative Assembly. The Regional Director stressed that bullying is a very old reality that is "now perceived as a problem, being the subject of "concrete measures" under the implementation of Prosucesso that will be jointly carried out with other governmental departments.

These measures, among others, include the "identification" of cases. In this regard, the government official stressed that "the biggest problem is when cases are not identified, because unidentified cases do not have a solution."

Avelino Meneses also stressed the important collaboration with security forces, namely through the Safe School Programme, to combat other problems that arise in the vicinity of schools. The government official appealed to "all actors of the Regional Education Systems, parents, tutors, teachers and school boards to "report this problem."

On the other hand, the Secretary for Education emphasised the efforts carried out by the Government to hire more personnel, teaching and non-teaching staff, an important resource for the "proper functioning" of the education system.

Avelino Meneses stressed the hiring of more than eighty administrative technicians, some of whom were hired to replace technicians that have recently retired; this resulted in the rejuvenation of the administrative staff. In addition, several dozen of teachers were hired in the area of special education.

"One of the problems we are facing in the Azores regarding school technicians is not just the number of technicians, it is often the problem of ageing staff, the government official said, considering that this problem "turns out to have some implications in the monitoring" of students.