The government will reform the organizational model of schools.

The governor made this statement during the afternoon session of parliament on Wednesday, the 7th.

"The issue of school grouping was one of the biggest mistakes of this educational reform," he accused.

Among the problems highlighted by the minister is the impact of the organization of school clusters on the lives of students and families, especially in communities where the distance between schools affects school attendance.

"In Santo Antão, fifth-grade children had to move houses," he gave as an example.

The situation has also created difficulties for teachers placed on mobility schemes, who are required to move between different educational establishments.

Another aspect raised by Arnaldo Brito concerns the costs associated with the administration of schools.

The minister compared the current system with the previous model, based on hubs for basic education and school directorates for secondary education.

"When the move towards grouping schools began, the Ministry of Education had no idea of the cost of administering them," he said.

According to figures presented by the government official, the annual costs for principals, deputy principals, and other school management personnel will have increased from 34,000 contos to 64,000 contos with the implementation of school clusters.

The structure created with the groupings may also have left some school officials without formal appointments for years, despite performing functions associated with management.

According to Arnaldo Brito, the Government has opted to appoint directors only in school clusters based in secondary schools.

“The others, whose headquarters are in primary schools, waited 10 years to be appointed and, in the meantime, called themselves directors. They were called directors, but in reality, they were never appointed.”

The governor linked the lack of appointments to the costs associated with the model, stating that the scale of the expenditure led the Executive to halt the process.

According to the minister, the difficulty lies in the adopted architecture, since there are different ways to structure school clusters.

The problem is that there are several models for grouping [businesses], and the government, at the time, opted for the worst model, resulting in what we see today.”

It is in this context that the Ministry of Education intends to change the current organizational structure of the school network. "We are going to reform the organizational model of schools," he stated.