Regional Education with 21.6 million Euro budget in 2021 - Communication

Secretaria Regional da Educação e dos Assuntos Culturais

The Regional Secretary for Education stated today that the Regional Plan and Budget will have an allocation of more than 21.6 million Euros for the sector. 

Sofia Ribeiro spoke at the Parliamentary Committee on Social Affairs of the Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region of the Azores in Horta, as part of the hearings on the 2021 Regional Plan and Budget. 

The Secretary for Education began explaining that a considerable portion of the budget will be allocated to the social support for students in the Region: "43% of our budget is directed to School Social Welfare and, with this investment, we will be able to support more than 21 thousand students in our Region," she said.    

"Considering the school universe, more than 60% of our students come from families that need social support, which justifies the fact that a substantial part of our Plan is focused on social support," she added.    

Sofia Ribeiro also stated that there is an allocation of 2.7 million Euros for the Digital Schools project.    

"The emerging challenge is to prepare schools for the 21st century with the provision of computer equipment and training for the digital environment, both for teachers and parents," the government official said.
    
According to the Secretary for Education, the budget also includes an allocation of 136 thousand Euros for educational projects: "the budget allocation of the previous government for this area only stood at 5,400 Euros in 2020," she noted.    

Regarding the fight against early school dropout and school failure, Sofia Ribeiro announced a budget allocation of about 300 thousand Euros: "when making a comparison, the previous government spent zero Euros in the fight against this scourge," the government official revealed.
    
As the Regional Secretary explained, the appropriation for school works was removed from the plan of the Secretariat for Education in this Government and is now included in the public works plan.    

"In comparison, we notice that the implementation level of the previous government's plan stood at 55%," Sofia Ribeiro stressed.
    
According to the Regional Secretary: "even with all the school works provided for in the Plan, the implementation level fell below 23 million Euros and, for this year, our budget, without including school works, exceeds 21 million Euros."