The Regional Secretary for Education and Culture reaffirmed today that the fight against school failure is a collective task, noting that only will be won with the participation of "all actors in the educational system."

"The fight against school failure is a truly collective task, a task that will only be overcome with the participation of all actors in the educational system, that is, with the participation of the Government, teachers, technicians, school boards and families - the community of our fellow citizens," said Avelino Meneses.

The Secretary for Education spoke at the presentation of the "Reading is Healthy" project. This initiative is developed under ProSucesso - Azores for Education, integrated plan for the promotion of school success. The government official considered that the taste for reading is "the only addiction that is not harmful," adding that it was through reading that "many humble men have earned public recognition and threatened the most powerful."

In his speech, Avelino Meneses stressed that it was precisely in order to "increase the literacy" of the Azorean population and placing the region at the level of the "best European examples" that the Government of the Azores created the National Reading Plan in 2011. It is in line with the national programme and aims to "promote the value of books by stimulating reading practices for the literacy of the ignorant and the enlightenment of the more cognisant."

According to the Regional Secretary, the strategy is focused on the monitoring of children and young people, "who are the true builders of a more progressive future because it will be built under new and consistent skills."

According to Avelino Meneses, the relevance of reading and books has led to the "promotion" of a regional network of school libraries; the latter are "spaces of multiple learning insofar as reading, being a useful and recreational activity, is an essential support throughout the educational path."

"Hence, instead of being contemplative services of educational activities, the libraries should complement educational services. Likewise, instead of being services to be mainly used by teachers, as it happened in the past, libraries should be at the service of students, who, in turn, must be encouraged to use them," said the government official.

School libraries are "services that have the potential to establish fruitful a relation between schools and between schools and the community."

Libraries are essentially formed by a "vast assembly of users that stimulates the circulation of knowledge and information," Avelino Meneses said, stressing that they are also "multiple learning spaces insofar as reading is an essential support of the educational path, given its educational and recreational component."

The "Reading is healthy" project involves the three Regional Directorates under the jurisdiction of the Regional Secretariat for Education and Culture. It is primarily intended to combine sport with reading. 

This initiative will provide elementary schools and regional school libraries with the possibility to acquire a collection of original short stories whose characters practice various sports and have healthy lifestyle habits.

The collection, which will be distributed in the school establishments belonging to the regional education system, comprises a book containing five original short stories by Ana Isabel Cabral Arruda Ferreira, Ângela Furtado-Brum, Cristina Quental, Mariana Magalhães, Regina Azevedo Pires Toste Tristão da Cunha and Victor Rui Dores. It also includes reading exploration guides and the illustrations of each story, the instructions for the use of kit materials, an agility/coordination ladder, a jumping rope, a rugby ball, a vortex and 20 scarves.