Avelino Meneses restates Regional Government's investment in programming teaching
The Regional Secretary for Education and Culture assured in Ponta Delgada that the Regional Government will move forward with the goal of equipping schools with IT equipment while providing training to teachers in this area.
Avelino Meneses spoke at the opening of the 3rd Regional Meeting of Technologies in Education, emphasising that the challenge is to turn the use of computer equipment "into an ordinary tool, such as paper and pencil."
In this context, the Regional Government began about two years ago the process providing computer resources to the most deprived schools, added Avelino Meneses.
In a first phase, with an investment of about 120 thousand Euros for the acquisition of almost two hundred computers, the Government made available the necessary equipment to the schools of Santa Maria, Graciosa, Flores, Corvo, Topo (S. Jorge), and Nordeste and Povoação (S. Miguel).
The Regional Secretary considered that this “momentum” will be “even greater” with the generalisation of programming teaching in the elementary and middle school levels, which has already led the Government to purchase about two thousand computers in a 700-thousand Euro investment.
In turn, the Department of Education, in cooperation with the Regional Directorate for Science and Technology, will launch a training programme for teachers so that they can “properly monitor the students' work.”
These resources and human investments have risen the teaching of new technologies in the Region “to a higher level,” said Avelino Meneses.
About 150 teachers are participating in the 3rd Regional Meeting of Technologies in Education (ERTE), which will be held until Friday at Domingos Rebelo Secondary School.
Held under ProSucesso for the third consecutive year, this meeting intends to disseminate among the entire Azorean educational community the digital tools and resources that can be used in education with benefits for students.