“All necessary measures are being developed to conclude the process as swiftly as possible,” clarified the authorities in a statement to the Lusa agency.
Out of a total of 1,031,937 students, ‘vouchers’ have already been issued for 1,012,092, according to the Ministry of Education, Science, and Innovation (MECI), leaving 19,845 students pending.
The Association of Private and Cooperative Educational Establishments (AEEP) warned today that there are hundreds of students in the 5th, 7th, and 10th grades at the 27 private schools with association contracts with the Ministry of Education still without textbooks, more than a month after the start of the school year.
“We have students who still cannot access their textbooks because there are no ‘vouchers’ [issued by the Ministry of Education] to purchase them,” confirmed Executive Director Rodrigo Queiroz e Melo, describing the delay as “regrettable at this time.”
Among the five thousand students covered by the association contracts with the MECI, distributed across 200 classes and 27 private schools, “the majority are without textbooks,” he said, acknowledging that some schools have procured and provided the textbooks to their students in advance.
According to the AEEP, the delay in issuing ‘vouchers’ for textbooks by the Ministry of Education is related to the association contract process.
“This year’s tender was launched very late, and while students have already started classes, contracts for the cycle beginnings are still in the process of being signed,” he explained, urging the Government to show “capacity and flexibility” to “move forward and issue the ‘vouchers’ and then handle the administrative matters.”
For the association, the lack of textbooks does not jeopardize the teaching and learning process, as teachers seek alternatives such as worksheets and photocopies. However, “when there is no money for anything, making photocopies is a significant cost.”
