Avelino Meneses stresses importance of ongoing training for regional education system agents
The Regional Secretary for Education and Culture highlighted in Ponta Delgada the "extraordinary" relevance of ongoing training for teachers and non-teaching staff in the regional education system, given the need to review "methods and practices" to better fit teaching into students' characteristics and expectations.
Speaking at the opening of the 1st Meeting of the House of Sciences - Azores, an event organised in partnership with the University of the Azores, Avelino Meneses revealed that more than 2,500 agents in education received educational updating, technical and scientific training.
According to the Secretary for Education, this effort adds up to the Regional Government's commitment to providing all regional education agents with adequate technological tools, such as the REDA Platform - Open Digital Resources.
For Avelino Meneses, this digital tool offers "quality educational resources designed to enrich and contribute to the revision of educational practices." It is "updated on a regular basis" by the coordinating team of teachers as well as by several teachers, after previous validation of contents.
In the digital era, online education is a "solution" that must be "properly explored" by governments, schools and teachers' associations as it may "cover all peripheral areas to the detriment of the traditional privilege of central areas," added the Regional Secretary."
In his speech, Avelino Meneses also launched a challenge for teachers in the Azores to become the "messengers" of the benefits of learning, ongoing training and initial training, because teacher training "also belongs to teachers themselves."
Held under the theme "Scientific Education and 21st Century Technology," the 1st Meeting of the House of Sciences -Azores involves the participation of Belmiro de Azevedo Foundation. It is primarily intended to offer participants strategies they may be able to implement in the classroom.