The Regional Secretary for Education and Training announced that the Regional Curriculum Framework is concluded and should be approved soon.

Cláudia Cardoso spoke on Friday at the Seminar organised by the National Council of Education in the city of Lisbon where she presented a paper on Education for the Sustainable Development in the Regional Curriculum.

This framework consists of eight key skills, which will be further explained, whenever possible, by using references containing regional themes whether in the field of geography, history, literature or in the field of arts,” stressed the Regional Secretary.

The implementation of these key skills will thus be will a form “of enrichment and a complement for training students in the Azores.”

Cláudia Cardoso stressed that “what we have sought to achieve with this framework was the promotion of learning that has to do with the regional reality,” making school “increasingly meaningful to Azorean students.”

The Secretary for Education also assured that “no additional subjects will be added” to the current list of curricular areas, therefore the creation of regional subjects will not take place, which would otherwise overload students and teachers.

The Regional Curriculum will promote the development of “key skills by reinforcing the need to ensure the sustainable development in a region with suitable characteristics for the promotion of sustainability, given that the Azores were considered the second most sustainable islands of the planet.”

“There are teachers in our schools that include regional themes, but not all do so.” We now intend, stated the Regional Secretary, that the “regional curriculum promote the transverse nature of regional themes so that all teachers, within their possibilities, may bring this reality to schools.”

With the framework about to be approved, the materials that will be made available in the online resource area are being prepared, which may be used by teachers.

“The materials produced by teachers, which are validated, may be added to this resource area, integrating this set of materials,” stated the Regional Secretary for Education.