The Regional Secretary for Education and Culture highlighted today the "considerable success" achieved by the educational and community intervention project, designated as "An Ecological Approach to Promoting School Success," which took place over the last year in Lagoa and Água de Pau, São Miguel Island.
 
Avelino Meneses spoke at the conference "Community Intervention and Educational Success" in Lagoa. The government official stated that this success is based on a "substantial" decrease in failure rates and the reduction in unexcused absences, being in line with the goals of ProSucesso - Azores for Education, a plan that aims to increase school success and reduce school absenteeism.
 
In his speech, the government official considered that the explanations for achieving these "good results" are "almost entirely" due to the implementation of this intervention project. Created by the Higher Institute of Applied Psychology, the project had the partnership of Lagoa City Hall and the Regional Secretariats for Social Solidarity and for Education and Culture. It covered "students, teachers, parents and tutors."
 
For her part, the Regional Secretary for Social Solidarity highlighted the role of educational success as a promoter of social cohesion, noting that "the education system needs to meet the needs of communities in order to improve their academic achievements." Moreover, she also added that "the academic successes of these young people will condition the socio-educational context of communities."
 
Andreia Cardoso said this programme is "cherished by the Government of the Azores." According to her, it is "ideal for those who want to learn how to support parents in our community by helping them to raise physically and mentally healthy children and young people that will achieve good results at school, live nonviolent lives and that will establish a good relation to the community. We hope that they will grow to become interested adults."
 
For the Regional Secretary for Education and Culture, "it was important" to give "voice and trust" to students, to "convert" teachers into "partners, who are never responsible for our collective failures," and to stimulate collaborative work, especially in the elementary school level.
 
However, Avelino Menezes stressed that "if the analysis of the results encourages us to achieve important goals, namely the decrease of school failure, it also makes us accountable because it is still important to follow a long and winding path towards the construction of total school success."
 
These results point out to "battles" that must be stopped, especially among the neediest social groups, in order to "give equal opportunities to all" and "instil" among youngsters the "belief that it is worth studying."