On Wednesday, the president of PS/Açores, Francisco César, accused the Regional Government coalition of PSD/CDS-PP/PPM of “enormous unpreparedness” at the start of the school year and “some imprudence” in anticipating the beginning of classes due to the lack of teachers and operational assistants. He also criticized the government’s actions in the education sector.
In a statement sent to newsrooms, the Regional Secretary for Education, Culture, and Sports, Sofia Ribeiro, lamented that the socialist “devalues, with total disrespect for the educational community, the good results” obtained in national exams and tests. She highlighted that “in a year when Azorean students achieved better averages than Portuguese students in general in 10 subjects, with notable results in Portuguese and Mathematics A, due to their representativeness.”
The executive also emphasizes the “lowest ever rate of early school leaving and training, which during socialist times was 27% and this year was 21.7%.”
Regarding the lack of teachers criticized by the socialist leader in the Azores, the department explains that in the first phase of teacher placements for the next year, “there were 88 vacancies that remained unfilled,” but “there are 460 available properly qualified teachers who can obtain placement in subsequent phases.”
“Of these, there were six vacancies for Corvo and 22 for Flores, which were launched in new competitions, to which 92 candidates have applied in this current phase,” the department adds.
Quoted in the press release, Sofia Ribeiro ensures that this is a process that the executive continues to monitor so that the schools’ needs are “met by qualified teachers who did not obtain placement in the initial phase.”
“Unlike socialist governments, which ended paid professional internships, the coalition government restored a model in which teachers, in the last year of their initial training, started receiving a salary and counting service time for the work they provide in schools,” she argues.
Students in teaching courses, she adds, now benefit from scholarships to support their tuition fees in the most needed teaching groups. This school year, “there will be 57 students from teaching master’s degrees doing their internships in Azores schools.”
Regarding the Teaching Career Statute in the Azores, the Regional Government notes that “profound changes were introduced,” with the full recovery of inter-career time, the introduction of equity in working hours for kindergarten educators and 1st cycle teachers. Additionally, rights for contracted teachers regarding holidays, licenses, and dispensations were contemplated.
“If the PS government had not disrespected maternity, paternity, and illness rights, especially in Flores and Corvo, we certainly would not be in the current condition of teacher shortage,” points out the Regional Secretary.
Sofia Ribeiro considers that “Francisco César has the obligation to know the true nature of the region’s structural problems, to recognize his party’s responsibility in the sequence of poor choices in the Education area that PS executives implemented in the 24 years they governed.”
Regarding the school calendar, the department reminds that schools have the option to start the school year between September 9 and 11, ending classes between June 20 and 27, depending on the education level.
