Madeira News Blog

(28th May). "Undeniably Portuguese Territory" – ‘Jaime Gama and António Manuel Correia work to enhance biodiversity and conservation in the Selvagens Islands’. The President of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal said that the visit made on Tuesday to the Selvagens was a "statement of presence in a territory that is undoubtedly Portuguese", a warning to the Spanish who have been using the airspace in a long running dispute. Gama spoke from the biggest island ‘Selvagem Grande’, that forms part of the sub-archipelago of Madeira, accompanied by a group from the National defence Commission for the Assembly of the Republic. Gama also stressed the importance of work for the preservation of biodiversity, stating that "it is a wild landscape of great natural beauty," as recognized by Jacques Cousteau, who said that the local waters were the clearest in the world. The regional secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources, Manuel António Correia, said that this visit disproved the feeling that "Portugal does not recognize properly the environmental work done by Madeira. This is a real environmental sovereignty" the secretary said, adding that with all the work done on nature conservation, along with the presence of wardens "Portugal meets all requirements to maintain jurisdiction over land and surrounding sea areas".  The Chief of Staff (CEMA), Admiral Fernando Melo Gomes, stressed that "this paradise will continue with the support of the Navy", and announced that from the summer period he will put a team of Marines on the islands to help maintain order and preserve the beauty. How did Gama get back to Lisbon by plane? The question was answered, and he took a helicopter to Madeira and a plane from there.

‘Medical journals of the Atlantic Islands – Meeting runs from 3 to 6 June in Funchal. Vaccines, ageing, and breast cancer are the major topics of discussion’. The meeting, which will unite around 150 professionals from Madeira, the Azores, the Canaries, and Cape Verde, comprises three round tables, which will discuss the advances in vaccination, ageing and breast cancer. Work will start with a conference on ‘Climate Change and Emerging Infectious Diseases’, which will have as speaker Jorge Atouguia, associate professor of the Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

(27th May). ‘Drugs Seized Worth One Million – Since the beginning of this month police have impounded more than €1 million in drugs’. Judicial Police (PJ) have prevented the hauls reaching the streets of Madeira, and according to the coordinator of the Criminal Investigation Department of the PJ in Funchal, the €1,088,230 euros of drugs seized were the fruit of hard work, and not the result of operations planned for this month. In all there were eight seizures, all detailed in the article. There were a lot of foreigners involved, and in the last bust on Monday, two men of African origin were taken into custody after being caught with 2,000 cocaine fixes, and 600 of hashish, worth altogether on the streets around €53,000.

‘Recreational Park At Matur – The project should include a facility for observing planes’. At the end of 2010, the zone of Matur in Água de Pena, should have a ‘modern and sophisticated’ leisure area, in the area where the Hotel Atlantis used to be, before it was demolished because of it’s proximity to the airport. The responsible regional secretary, who is preparing the project, has a main objective "to create a green area for public recreation", with one aim being to accomodate plane spotters because it has a good outlook over Madeira Airport. Plane spotting, according to the article, is a hobby growing in popularity on Madeira. Young visitors to the new site will also have climbing equipment, and swings and slides to play on.

Under the programme to provide all school kids with a simple and cheap laptop computer, of the 13,800 eligible youngsters at basic level school, around 8,000 (60%) have already made their applications, and that has happened just since the 8th May. The eventual level of requests is expected to provide laptops for at least 95% of all kids. The programme for older kids (5th to 12th years) is also providing low cost laptops to around 11,000. I presume these are all for recreational and research use, as without 100% adherence I can’t see that they can form part of school lessons.

Madeira’s population has a very low feeling of insecurity, thanks to the population at large and the work of the security forces. Tuesday morning, at the swearing in of Jorge de Freitas as president of the Office of Regional Security Coordination, President Alberto João Jardim praised the climate of cooperation that exists between the different services that ensure public security. The role is intended to enhance cooperation between the various police and security services in joint actions, and will not interfere in the work of them individually. That’s good to know. Unlike Portugal, where people are feeling much more insecure according to recent reports, as crime increases with economic depression. One day this week someone gave me a newspaper from Portugal, called ‘O Crime’, which is purely dedicated to reporting crime on the mainland. I presume it is to draw attention to the growing issue, but with a cover price of €1.40, it seems the publishers don’t practice what they preach. It’s quite a big talking point here on Madeira about the continental crime levels, but most people are really not sure it is as bad as get reported in the media.

A dockers strike scheduled for today and tomorrow, and again in limited form between 1st and 5th June, will affect refuelling of ships visiting or stationed in Madeira waters.

Overview

The school education system on Madeira falls under the remit of the Portuguese education system, although there are some important differences outside of the curriculum itself.

The school year commences late September for most students, and runs across 3 terms, with breaks at Christmas and Easter, and then for almost 3 months during the summer. There are no half term breaks in Madeira schools.

Schooling is compulsory from the age of 6 until the age of 16 for all residents, although some children may start earlier if there is a nursery school or other preschool facility available. School registration usually requires a health check and the production of documents relating to identity and health care, and although there are set registration periods, if coming to Madeira from elsewhere there shouldn’t be any problems outside of these periods as long as space is available in the school.

Portuguese children would naturally go to their local state school, but some non-Madeiran parents choose to send their children to the private English school in Funchal, but through that option there is of course a impact on the speed and thoroughness of that child’s integration into Portuguese society and culture.  Fees would be payable, and any private school would have to be registered by the Department of Education and follow national and / or international curricula. 

State schooling is state funded, with the exception of books and equipment, clothes and meals, which are expensive and many parents find difficulty in funding. There are often arrangements in
place for transportation for children living in the more remote areas of Madeira.

Together, the primary and secondary school systems take a child through a minimum of 12 years (grades), and amongst the compulsory subjects, English is due to become taught for a period covering up to 4 years for Madeira’s children.

Primary School (Escola Básica)

Education at this level is split into phases (4, 2 & 3 years), and in the first phase the child may be with the same teacher and classmates for several years, normally studying or learning in less hours than in later years. Before proceeding to the next phase, the children need to be assessed for ability to progress, which can result in some children being retained for a further year.

Due to some issues of supply and demand, some schools work a double shift system, with early morning starts and early  finishes for some, followed by an second shift for other children.

In the second phase, the children generally stay together, working longer hours and may have several teachers, each  covering a group of subjects.

In the final phase, lasting 3 years, which takes the children up to the age of 14, students can branch out into new subjects according to their preferences, and will have a variety of much more specialised teachers.

Getting from year to year involves passing assessments, and if a particular child does not pass the criteria then they stay at the same level for an extra year before moving on, meaning that theoretically the normal finishing age of 14 can be considerably extended.

When each subject module is successfully passed, the student receives a certificate of basic education, and after the final evaluation the successful students gain a diploma which allows them to enter into secondary education, if they choose to do so, or they can finish schooling at that stage.

Secondary School (Escola Secundária)

The students here exercise further choices in more specialised subject matter, in courses spanning over a further 2 or 3 years.  The assessments are continuous, with annual exams in each subject. At the end students take exams, set and managed at a national level, and if they are successful in completing the third year then they are able to proceed to further education on Madeira or elsewhere if they choose to do so.

Education & School ‘Cycles’ for Madeiran Children

1st Cycle 1st Phase
1º  year / grade age 6
2º  year / grade age 7
3º  year / grade age 8
4º  year / grade age 9

1st Cycle 2nd Phase
5º  year / grade age 10
6º  year / grade age  11

1st Cycle 3rd Phase
7º  year / grade age 12
8º  year / grade age 13
9º  year / grade age 14

2nd Cycle
10º  year / grade age 15
11º  year / grade age 16

2nd Cycle for University Entrance
12º  year / grade age 17

University
3 years

Adult Education

Madeira has its own university (UMa), where students can opt for courses to obtain diplomas and degrees, but a noticeable number leave the island to take their course on the mainland, usually Lisbon, rather than stay on Madeira where the choices are understandably more limited.

Adult education classes are available around Madeira, often through night school, with the aim of providing poorly educated adults with an opportunity to better themselves and their careers. They run for up to 3 hours a night on every weeknight, and are free for residents to attend. Some foreigners use these courses to try and learn or improve their Portuguese language skills, but it can be difficult as there is no guarantee that the teacher can speak English.

It is becoming more common to find language courses for foreigners wishing to learn to speak Portuguese, and in recent years classes have been held at Calheta, Ponta do Sol and Ribeira Brava.

Qualifications

Professional and technical qualifications obtained on Madeira should equate to EU recognised levels, and would certainly be recognised within Portuguese boundaries, but beyond that each country would have its own means of comparison. Demonstrating that difference, it would suffice to say that a degree gained at an English university would enable you to announce yourself as ‘Doctor’ on Madeira.

Standards Of Education

Madeira and Portugal are like any other country where good and not so good standards vary from school to school. By enlarge, it is usually reported in the local press that Madeira underachieves compared with the Portuguese national averages, but given the differences in the economy, maybe that is not so surprising.

Also, teacher moral is not high on Madeira due to issues such as pay, and changes in employment conditions and the teaching curriculum, with the latest issues being over retirement conditions and teacher evaluations, and there have been several strikes in recent years. The issue of teacher evaluations was overcome on Madeira, when the regional government unwisely decided to give them all a blanket evaluation of ‘good’ in 2008.

However, the measures for child assessment on Madeira are set nationally, and it is at least possible to monitor a child’s progress and spot at an early stage if the educational targets are not being met, and then it is not too late to take remedial action through further tutoring, or as a last result a change of school.

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