The Regional Secretary for Education and Culture concluded in Santa Cruz das Flores a tour to the 40 school establishments of the regional education system. The tour started in September last year and ended Tuesday.

Avelino Meneses, who was accompanied in these visits by the Regional Director for Education, Fabíola Cardoso, held several meetings with the teaching staff with the primary goal of "developing" of a programme for the promotion of academic success to be implemented in the school year 2015/2016.

After the stabilisation of the regional teaching staff, we have "other ambitious and more difficult challenges ahead of us," the main being the elimination or, at least, the reduction of school failure. This goal will be achieved "with hard work, ambition and a certain amount of utopia."

"We need to go from whining to action," Avelino Meneses said, noting that the Government of the Azores counts on the "cooperation of all parties involved" in this fight against school failure and in the construction of an "inclusive school that is mainly focused on students."

For this reason, the Regional Secretary defended the need to "multiply dialogue between powers, both local and regional, families and institutions with the sole purpose of ensuring the well-being of students."

The Integrated Plan for the Promotion of School Success - ProSucesso is currently under public consultation until the end of May. It will be joined by a series of concrete measures to combat school failure that are already on the ground, such hour credits, the expansion of the Fénix Project, the support to elementary school teachers and, more recently, the creation of school mediators. 

The education system of the Azores comprises over 40,400 students and a total of 175 schools. Currently, there are over 4,700 teachers working at regional schools, supported by approximately 2,300 non-teaching staff members.