Sofia Ribeiro praises increase in investment in Education despite demographic decline - Communication

Secretaria Regional da Educação, Cultura e Desporto

The Regional Secretary for Education, Culture and Sport, Sofia Ribeiro, highlighted the Regional Government’s significant investment in the education sector at a time when the region is experiencing a population decline.

“We need to analyse the changes in the indicators recorded and understand the reasons behind them so that we can define strategies for education,” she emphasised.

Sofia Ribeiro spoke to the presidents of school boards, representatives of trade unions and parents’ associations at the meeting of the Coordinating Council of the Regional Education System. The event took place on Friday, 12 June, at Domingos Rebelo Secondary School in Ponta Delgada.

The government official revealed that, in public schools, the number of students has fallen from 36,135 in the 2019 school year to 31,305 in 2026.

However, there has been an “increase in the proportion of students completing secondary education,” a result of “greater emphasis placed on studies and the work carried out by schools.”

As for the permanent teaching staff, the Secretary for Education reported that, since 2019, there have been “more than 500 teachers in permanent positions within the school staff.”

As for non-teaching staff, the Regional Secretary revealed that there were 1,916 permanent staff members in the 2019/2020 school year.

“Today, there are 2,145 non-teaching staff members on the permanent staff of our schools,” she added. For Sofia Ribeiro, “bsenteeism remains the challenge."

As for the early school dropout rate, the Regional Secretary pointed out that the target is to reduce it to 15% by 2030, “bringing the Region closer to the figures registered in the rest of the country.”

“We saw a first significant drop in 2021, following five years of stagnant figures. Currently, the figure stands at 21.1%,” she noted.

The government official also outlined the trend in school social welfare, which has been rising per student despite the decline in the number of students in the Region.

“Just by improving household income, we have managed to reduce the need to allocate school social welfare to students in need,” she noted.

The agenda of the meeting also included topics such as preparations for the 600th anniversary of the discovery of the Azores; the organisation of the Computational Thinking project for the coming school year; and the presentation of the parental involvement project by the Federation of Parents’ Associations of the Azores.