The Regional Secretary for Education and Culture stated in Horta that the Regional Government is committed to building a "school of development," which he considered to be the only path towards "more justice and greater progress."
 
Avelino Meneses spoke at the Legislative Assembly during an interpellation addressed to the Government on the education sector. He defended that school should transform the "education of citizens into a consortium between the improvement of society and economic growth."
 
"We need an inclusive school that does not give up on rigour as well as a demanding school that does not give up on inclusion. It should be a school that practices solidarity, which is the tool of justice, and stimulates competitiveness, which is the tool of progress," said the government official.
 
Bearing in mind the social relevance of school, "searching for a broader consensus on the planning of education is urgent so that we may "safeguard the education system from collective ideologies, personal prejudices and bickering," stated Avelino Meneses.
 
For the Regional Secretary, students "are the only priority" in the education system as they are "the reason for all the rest. However, he noted that "the Government cannot do everything alone."
 
In this regard, he stated that teachers, as "key partners," and families, who play a "vital role" in the education of children, are also called for this fight against school failure.
 
"School failure is our first setback," Avelino Meneses said, stressing that the Azores have departed from "very low levels due the isolation and abandonment of decades and, perhaps, centuries to which they were subjected. In addition, there is also "the fact that the Portuguese education system is quite unstable, "often" denying the opportunity of turning a good theory into good educational practices."
 
According to the Secretary for Education, "there is no place for resignation" before school failure. Having this goal in mind, the Region has invested in the preparation of an integrated plan to promote educational success, designated as ProSucesso - Azores for Education, which is "the most important challenge for the future of the islands."
 
Thus, the goal of ProSucesso is "simply to help all students achieving academic success."
 
"The goal of ProSucesso also involves the fulfilment of the goals set under the 2020 Strategy. They are still too demanding for the Azores as they require the reduction of early school dropout and the mitigation of school failure," said the government official.
 
According to the government official, "more than an intention, ProSucesso is a practice" whose results will yield "over time," but in a "consistent manner." In this regard, he highlighted the focus on the quality of student learning, with the launch of new monitoring projects in teacher training by providing teachers with more resources and better training, as well as with the mobilisation of the education community and social partners.
 
Despite the setbacks, the Azores have registered "several progresses," namely in the early school dropout rate, which fell more than 33% between 1998 and 2016. Moreover, he revealed that the school dropout and the respective rate "are null in the elementary and middle school levels and residual in junior high and secondary school levels."
 
With regard to these positive indicators, Avelino Meneses highlighted the improvement of school results in the first year of schooling, the rates of preschool attendance as well as the success/completion rates in the Basic Education and Secondary School levels. In 2015/2016, they reached some goals planned for 2020/2021, with five years in advance.
 
Thought the term for a period of 10 years, at the end of the first year of implementation of ProSucesso, he stressed the Regional Secretary, "found positive indicators, even very positive, that to require the strengthening of the surveillance so that the progress does not succeed regression."