The Regional Secretary for Education, Culture, and Sports, Sofia Ribeiro, announced yesterday at a press conference held at the Ponta Delgada Public Library and Regional Archives that the new school year will begin with 98% of teaching needs met. According to the secretary, of the 5,300 public school teachers, 114 positions remained unfilled in the first phase of centralized placement and have now been posted on the Public Employment Exchange. However, 203 teachers also remain to be placed, which means that if these 203 teachers had applied to these schools, the number of vacancies still unfilled would be much lower or practically non-existent.”

Sofia Ribeiro gives the example of the 1st cycle group, which has the highest number of vacancies to be filled, in this case, 32 vacancies. However, she pointed out that “there are 57 teachers who are duly qualified for this group who are still waiting to be placed.” According to the Regional Secretary for Education, the Azorean executive has been striving to promote stability and, as such, this academic year alone has seen “an increase of 124 permanent teachers compared to the previous year, which meant that 60 fewer annual and fixed-term contracts were needed this academic year.” The minister revealed that only six teachers left the “regional education system to teach on the mainland and in the Autonomous Region of Madeira, compared to those who came to the Azores.” “As this is the first year that the Azores Government will implement incentives to encourage teachers to stay, 31 teachers have been placed in positions eligible for these incentives on the islands of Santa Maria, Graciosa, São Jorge, Flores, and Corvo,” noted the Minister of Education.

Regarding the number of Educational Action Personnel, this is the first academic year in which placements will be made as a result of a “centralized competition for operational assistants, substantially streamlining the replacement process, with greater job and school stability,” emphasized Sofia Ribeira. As such, this academic year begins with a total of 1,651 operational assistants, with a total of “2,258 educational action workers, of whom 169 are senior technicians, mainly in the health sector.” However, it should be noted that, among these workers, 223 are currently on sick leave. “Although we have workers in schools, this year we are again seeing a significant decrease in the number of students, with a reduction of more than 1,000 students in public schools,” revealed the secretary. This new school year also marks a new pedagogical introduction. For the first time, bilingual education in Portuguese and English is being introduced in the Azores, initially offered in two schools in the region. “We are talking about EBI in Praia da Vitória and EBS in Velas, covering the first three years of classes.” The Secretary of Education also said that the project to digitize school textbooks will be extended for the first time “to all students from the 5th to the 12th grade,” and that it was “necessary to launch international courses in four schools in the region, namely the Antero de Quental, Domingos Rebelo, Jerónimo Emiliano de Andrade, and Vitorino Nemésio.“ Given that this is a lengthy process, it will not be completed by the start of the school year and, as such, ”we have contracted access to the virtual school for these schools, to ensure that students have access to digital textbooks right at the start of the school year,” explained Sofia Ribeiro.

In Diário dos Açores, Paulo Viveiros, 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.