The Minister of Education, Science and Innovation stated this Monday that the specialized technology centers are “very delayed”, but they are yet to be carried out and for this he did not extend the deadline but created a working group to streamline the processes.
The action plan “will have a working group that will identify obstacles with a individual response to each school to eliminate the obstacles identified,” Fernando Alexandre told journalists in Lamego, Viseu district, at the end of the first of the five meetings that will take place this week in the country to present the Government’s action plan for the Implementation of specialized technological centers.
Fernando Alexandre said that when he came to the Government in April he noticed “an enormous delay” in these professional school projects and that is why he called representatives and directors of schools and municipalities, “a very important part”, as well as the Ministry of Territorial Affairs. Cohesion.
According to the minister, two members of the ministry are part of the working group created by the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation (MECI) to accelerate the processes already started, so that there is a “very direct connection” with the schools. , in order to “follow the projects individually.”
There will also be “support groups (to confront) the difficulties that some school managements are having, particularly with public procurement procedures”, one of the difficulties identified in the last two months.
On the table, to combat “multiple-dimensional” difficulties, such as, for example, the VAT refund that “takes time to arrive” to educational institutions, there are “specific measures for each one.”
A will be published joint order with the Ministry of Finance, precisely to accelerate the return of VAT to schools. We will try to speed up reimbursement of expenses to schools. There are multiple measures,” he said.
Asked if there is a possibility of extending the completion period of the project, which ends in December 2025, taking into account the assumed delay, the minister was peremptory: “We are not going to extend deadlines, we are going to execute.”
For guarantee that, in fact, we take advantage of this unique opportunity, which will not be repeated, to be able to re-equip our professional schools with equipment that will allow our students to have access to better technologiesso that they can acquire the necessary capabilities for the modernization of our economy,” he defended.
In question are 480 million euros (ME) of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) to reequip professional schools in Portugal that include specialized technological centers.
The minister also defended that professional schools are “essential for the qualification of the Portuguese workforce, to respond to the needs of companies and territories.”
Fernando Alexandre also stated that vocational training “is very important” in areas of the Portuguese economy and “has been an increasingly important option in families’ choices to guarantee access to the labor market.”
Source: Observadora
