The Regional Secretary for Education and Culture restated in Angra do Heroísmo the Government's availability to promote the revision of the teaching application, after an assessment to be carried out during the summer.
 
"Last month, at the end of a party conference, the President of the Government announced the assessment to the three special teaching applications after the conclusion of the process this summer. He also demonstrated the Government's availability to revise the legislation regulating the frequency of the applications and requirement to teach at the same school for three years," said Avelino Meneses. The government official spoke Wednesday at the end of a hearing at the Committee on Social Affairs of the Legislative Assembly.
 
"We will fulfil this programme," the Regional Secretary said, adding that the Azorean Government will assess the three special teaching applications, which have place more than 300 teachers, confronting "the final results with initial expectations and meeting with the unions."
 
The Secretary for Education also admitted "the promotion of a revision process of the teaching application, which will mainly focus on the frequency and requirement to teach for three years."
 
This availability to revise the Government's policy in education is based on the change in the assumptions that have led the Region in 2012 to stipulate that teaching application should be held every four years as well as on the "recognition of the stability of the regional teaching staff" and "the convergence to the scheme in force in Mainland Portugal and Madeira."
 
The national scheme was amended in 2014 with the establishment of an annual external application for teachers attached to the regional teaching staff, a factor that "allows teachers to leave the Region and work in Mainland Portugal. Under the four-year recruitment scheme force in the Azores, the teachers transferred to Mainland Portugal can only be replaced by hired teachers, who "may remain in this condition for three school years," said the Regional Secretary.
 
Therefore, we have considered the need to revise the frequency of application so that the permanent needs of the Regional Education System may be met with tenured teachers. This will contribute to the subsequent reduction of teachers hired on fixed-term contracts and the possibility of teaching in schools near the area of residence, which will have benefits in the quality of education.
 
At the hearing with the members of the Committee on Social Affairs, Avelino Meneses restated that "neither the Plan for 2016 nor the Regional Public Works Charter" mention the plans to build a new Basic Education and Secondary School in Povoação, São Miguel.
 
"With the resources available, particularly EU funds, it would not be easy to accommodate a similar project by 2020 as part of the school buildings project developed by the Regional Secretariat for Education and Culture, admitted the government official.
 
However, Avelino Meneses stressed that, "as it has been said before, we will change our priorities whenever the safety of the school community is at stake."
 
According to the Regional Secretary for Education and Culture, the Povoação School will undergo renovation works, as in accordance with the interventions in school buildings scheduled in the Regional Charter Public Works. "This intervention will be eventually funded by the regional budget and its scope will depend on the evolution of the number of students as well as on the need to revise, expand or expand available services so that it can meet the teaching and learning requirements."