The Regional Secretary for Education and Culture stated in Vila Franca do Campo that, although the Azores have reached the targets set for 2020-2021, the fight against school failure still has to follow "a long and winding path" towards the construction of "a fully successful school."
Avelino Meneses spoke Thursday at the presentation of the "Educational Success - School, Community, Family" project. This is a community-based intervention to be developed in the municipality of Vila Franca do Campo in a partnership between the Regional Secretariats for Social Solidarity and Education and the Vila Franca Town Hall.
In his speech, the Regional Secretary defended that the school must call "everything and everyone to take on the difficult but stimulating task to promote the academic and professional success of new generations."
For the Regional Secretary, combating school failure and promoting academic success should be also "encouraged outside school walls," not only within a family and community context but also "within political and social institutions."
In this context, he pointed out the need to carry out "a teamwork" for the benefit of education, which requires "the hearing of students, teachers, technicians and school leaders as well as of those outside the school such as parents, tutors and associations," namely municipalities.
The community-based project "Educational Success - School, Community, Family" was developed in the municipality of Lagoa in the last two school years as part of ProSucesso - Azores for Education programme, under the scientific guidance of the Higher Institute of Applied Psychology. It will be now extended to Vila Franca do Campo and, afterwards, to "other schools and municipalities," said the Regional Secretary.
This project aims, among other things, to promote "the expectations of everyone in terms of better social performance in the present and better employability in the future." Moreover, it is also aimed at the improvement of school results since learning is "the best strategy to combat poverty and inequality."
The Regional Secretary for Social Solidarity, who also attended the event, stressed the Regional Government's ability to "identify" and meet the "needs of our children."
"Projects such as the one we are presenting are not, nor can they be described as a kind of "life-saving" project for school failure just because we are not satisfied with statistics. We cannot regard it from this perspective," said Andreia Cardoso.
For the government official, the project now presented "clearly demonstrates" the Regional Government's concern to not only regard children "as our future, but also to make them part of our present."