The Regional Secretary for Education, Science and Culture reiterated in Horta on Friday the Regional Government's intention of "taking concrete measures" that will decisively contribute to the improvement of school results.

Speaking at the Legislative Assembly during the debate on the Student Statute for Basic and Secondary Education, Luiz Fagundes Duarte conveyed his optimism for the results of the 1st phase of the national exams that were made public on Thursday. According to the data released, the results achieved by Azorean students "are above the national average" in several subjects.

The Regional Secretary acknowledged that there is still much to do, but if we take "small steps," we will be able to reach other levels.

According to him, the indicators available also allow us "to be optimistic" and demonstrate that Azorean schools, teachers and students are "doing well."

For the Regional Secretary, "statistics say there is still much to do in this area, especially with regard to the school achievements of children and students in general; however, this situation will not be changed with comprehensive legislative amendments, but by fully optimising the potentialities of the legislation that has been created by the Government during several legislative periods."

In this regard, the government official considered that the Azores "can be proud of having a good legislative framework on Education, which should be reinforced whenever necessary; however, it is important to be consolidated as a factor of system stability."

"The problems the educational system is facing have been mainly identified in schools and their operation models. The solution for these problems cannot forget the economic context as well as the social and social contexts of the communities where schools are located," the Regional Secretary said, stressing that inevitably "all citizens go through public school at a crucial stage of their personal development."

For that reason, the Secretary considered that "everything that is done in schools will have consequences in the life of our society."

According to Luiz Fagundes Duarte, the proposed amendment to the Student Statute for Basic and Secondary Education should be coordinated with other legislative documents on these matters, including the Statute on Private and Cooperative Teaching, and the Legal Scheme on the Creation, Autonomy and Management of the Schools belonging to the Regional Education System, currently under discussion at the Regional Legislative Assembly. This matter will be followed by the discussion of School Welfare, Assessment of Schools and Teacher Evaluation.

In this regard, the Regional Secretary stressed that "the work developed by Government developed is systemic." The government official noted that "everything that goes on schools or is related to them interferes with the whole they represent and, therefore, all proposals for legislative amends only make sense if regarded as a whole."

 The legislative initiative to introduce amendments to the Student Statute is intended to reinforce teachers' authority, exclude fines and offences, which proved difficult to be implemented by regional schools, and simplify the work of teachers.