Yesterday, the PS/Açores warned of “56 ghost teachers” at the Flores Primary and Secondary School (EBSF). These teachers correspond to teachers who, although they are on the island’s staff, “have never taught at that school,” a situation it considers “alarming.”
“We have been informed of the existence of 56 ‘ghost teachers’ who are on the school’s staff but have never taught, a situation that has been getting worse every year, which the PS/Açores had already alerted the regional government to when it decided to make changes in this area,” Dora Valadão, a member of the Azorean Parliament for the PS said in a statement.
According to the MP, “although the Regional Secretariat for Education claims that there are only two teachers missing in the whole region, on the island of Flores alone there are three missing, so the situation is worse than the government assumes.”
“These situations were denounced by the island’s Association of Parents and Guardians at a meeting held on Tuesday, as well as by the EBSF’s Executive Council, as part of a visit by the PS/Açores parliamentary group to that island,” says Dora Valadão.
According to the MP, the Parents’ Association and the school identified several other concerns, namely with the school infrastructure, especially the 1st cycle building, which is in “precarious” conditions, which meant that 4th-grade students had to be transferred to the 2nd cycle building.
“There have also been significant delays in the availability of digital textbooks, which, despite having been requested on time by the school, didn’t arrive at the start of the school year, and the Parents’ Association argues that these textbooks should be a complementary resource and not an exclusive one,” she adds.
Dora Valadão regrets that, despite the school bodies’ “complaints and demands,” the tutelage has still not responded.
“This is yet another example of the abandonment to which the island of Flores has been subjected by the current coalition government,” adds the Socialist Member of the Regional Parliament, considering that ”there is no justification for the concerns and desires of Florentines to continue unanswered and without action, leaving the population to fend for itself.”

in Diário Insular-José Lourenço, director

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno, PBBI thanks Luso Financial for sponsoring NOVIDADES.