Sofia Ribeiro presents Education Strategy to bring the Azores closer to the country by 2030 - Communication

Secretaria Regional da Educação, Cultura e Desporto

The Regional Secretary for Education, Culture and Sport, Sofia Ribeiro, wants to reduce "the gap between the Region and the rest of the country in terms of education indicators." In this regard, the Azores 2030 Education Strategy was drawn up, outlining the goals and actions that should "guide education policies" until the end of the decade.

The document was presented today at the Capitães-Generais Palace, in Angra do Heroísmo, and will be under public consultation until June 16.

"Although the Azores have been improving results in education, with some significant progress in the last two years, we are still lagging behind the indicators compared to the rest of the country and even Europe," she said.

The document presents "evolutionary data" from the previous decade, makes an "assessment of the current situation" and sets "targets for 2030."

One of the targets includes the reduction of the early dropout rate in education and training to 15% by 2030.

Data for 2023 had already shown a drop from 26.1% to 21.7% in the Azores, while the figure for the rest of the country rose to 8%.

With a view to reaching the target, the Regional Secretary intends to "identify and support students who have not completed secondary education."

The development of the AaZ - Read Better, Know More programme in all regional schools and the Computational Thinking programme up to the 6th grade are other targets that have been set.

The government official also plans to invest in artistic education, continue the dematerialisation of school textbooks and build citizenship modules starting in preschool.

The Regional Secretariat for Education intends that, by 2030, "90% of the teachers working in schools will be part of the regional teaching staff" - with this in mind, there are plans to maintain the application system determining the creation of a permanent position for every three full years of fixed-term contracts per teaching area and school establishment.

The aim is to create incentives for the pursuit of master's degrees in teaching and the establishment of teachers on several islands, school establishments and teaching groups in shortage.

The Strategy stipulates that 85% of employment contracts should be for an indefinite period in the case of school assistants and digital skills should be increased by 50% for all education staff.

The Regional Secretary for Education assured that the document will undergo a mid-term evaluation in 2027 and a final assessment in 2030.