Schools in Madeira open their doors today to begin receiving around 37,200 students, 3,800 fewer than in 2022, in a new academic year marked by the extension of the provision of digital textbooks up to the 10th year.
According to data from the Regional Education Secretariat provided to the Lusa agency, 17,200 students will attend daycare, pre-school and 1st cycle educational establishments.
The 2nd and 3rd cycles cover 20,000 students, who will return to classes between the 11th and 15th.
As of 2022, there are around 41,000 students, supported by 6,000 teachers and 4,000 non-teaching staff. The number of professionals in schools remains the same this academic year.
“The school year begins in absolute normality,” said the regional secretary of the department, Jorge Carvalho, to the Lusa agency.
According to the governor, “it is ensured that all children and young people, from nursery school to secondary education, have a fully functioning educational establishment, in which teachers guarantee, from the beginning, all the essential conditions for the promotion of learning and respective socialization”.
Jorge Carvalho said that “all the needs presented by the schools were met in a timely manner” by the Regional Education Secretariat.
However, he added, this department of the Regional Government (PSD/CDS-PP), which is at the end of its cycle because elections are being held on September 24, “has all the mechanisms to deal with possible withdrawals or other types of needs” .
The official highlighted that, “corresponding to the efforts of families in training their students, Madeira, following the planning established since 2018/19, includes, in 2023/24, the payment for school manuals, on paper, for students from 1 .th to 4th year”.
On the other hand, the provision of free tablets and digital manuals was extended from the 5th year onwards, covering all 9th and 10th year students for the first time.
“We leave a word of appreciation to the bodies responsible for managing schools, whose action contributed decisively, and once again, to this normality, which otherwise characterizes the regional educational system and promotes the application of the constitutional rights of the right to Education and success in the same way”, declared the head of Education for the archipelago.
In 2021, according to the most recent Census, Madeira had around 250,000 inhabitants, 6.4% less than in 2011.