The Regional Secretary for Education and Culture stated today that, despite the results of the final 9th form exams achieved by the Azores are the desired ones, they represent a small yet big victory."

"Similarly to what was registered in the elementary and middle school level, the results of the exams taken by junior high school students are a small yet big victory. Since our adherence to national exams in 2012, we had never achieved a positive average. It happened this time, with an average 53% in the Portuguese exam," said Avelino Meneses.

The Regional Secretary, who is in Lisbon to participate in the 'EPIS 2015 Meeting - Building the future," stressed that the preliminary school results provided by the Educational Assessment Institute (IAVE) raise two comments.

In this regard, the government official considered that the results achieved by the Azores in the Math exam "follow the national trend towards a slight decline," noting that these results "are not the desired ones."

For this reason, we will implement the ProSucesso programme in the next school year, which is an initiative intended to promote school success."

The results achieved by students in the final 9th Portuguese and Math exams will be posted at school throughout the day. These exams have a weight of 30% in the final mark of the subjects

With regard to the Portuguese exam, 2,301 students took the exam in the 1st phase; the In fact, it is the best average since 2012, the year when the Azores began applying these tests.

As for the Math exam, 2,307 students took the exam in the 1st phase, scoring an average of 37.3%, which represents a decline compared to 2014, when it stood at 41.48%. The results achieved by regional students are in line with the downward trend that was also registered this year in the national average.