Support to strengthen education : learn about 3 investments made by Movimento Bem Maior

UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization agency) highlights that countries will not be able to interrupt the cycle of poverty or achieve gender equality without having quality education that is inclusive and equitable. In fact, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights itself says that access to education is a right for everyone and that this will promote understanding, tolerance and friendship between racial, religious groups and nations.

Highlighting the importance of this issue for development and peace, the date of January 24th was chosen in 2018 by the UN as International Education Day (despite this, many celebrate April 28th as International Education Day in reference to the achievement of the World Education Forum in 2000, when several targets were established by governments for this area).

In 2023, the UN celebration highlights the importance of prioritizing education as an investment in people. It also emphasizes the need for strong political mobilization and charts the path to translating commitments into actions.

Looking at education in Brazil , this year will be very challenging given a complex situation. The pandemic, which marked one of the most tragic periods in the history of Brazil, affected student education, with the temporary closure of schools and the worsening of the economic crisis.

Now is the time for great unity to recover and recompose student learning, and support for philanthropy is essential to strengthen education, as organizations act strategically, developing initiatives and seeking solutions that serve as an example for governments to replicate good ideas and multiply the positive impact.

To show the importance of strategic philanthropy and to celebrate International Education Day, in this post we highlight three organizations that received support from the Greater Good Movement. The investment reached the three stages of basic education: early childhood education, primary education and secondary education.

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Maria Cecília Souto Vidigal Foundation

This organization is a reference when we talk about Early Childhood, a stage that goes from birth until the child turns six. The experiences, discoveries and affections experienced during this period have lifelong impacts and, consequently, reflect on society.

Among the recent achievements of the Maria Cecília Souto Vidigal Foundation is that obtained with the “ Evaluation of the Quality of Early Childhood Education ”, a broad survey that analyzed more than 3,000 daycare and preschool classes in 12 cities.

The relevance was so great that the tool became part of the Basic Education Assessment System (Saeb), representing a major advance for Brazil, as until now we did not have a national assessment of early childhood education. Having this portrait of the situation also serves as a contribution to planning public improvement policies.

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Education Partners 

Through partnerships with schools and state and municipal departments, Parceiros da Educação promotes greater involvement of civil society to improve public education. Their work values ​​educators and contributes to public policies in São Paulo.

With the support received, the organization worked to implement continued training for the network's professionals and to improve the management practices of school units and Education Directorates (the São Paulo Department of Education divides the state into 91 regions, and for each has an Education Board).

This support program for Education Directorates contributed to the structuring by internalizing training and expanding operations with more key actors. When evaluating the impact of this action, indications were found that there was a higher percentage of literacy students, compared to the group, and there was a faster recovery of literacy students from 2021 to 2022.

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I anoint

Iungo believes that educators are the main agents in transforming the school into a space where students develop fully and build their life projects. Therefore, the institute acts to support them. The organization contributes to the continued training of teachers and school managers, carries out research in education with systematization of knowledge, develops reference teaching materials, encourages debates and provides relevant information for the sector.

Several seeds planted by Iungo are already bearing fruit. The free continuing teacher training program “ Nosso Ensino Médio ” has become a partner of Consed (National Council of Education Secretaries) and is a reference for training secondary school teachers. The initiative gained recognition and was even a finalist for the Reimagine Education award, the “Oscar” of education.

The institute will also gain support to implement the “ Amazon Itineraries ” project, which will focus on the Amazon in training itineraries (a flexible part of the curricula), in which environmental, social, historical and cultural issues will be considered. The content will be available to schools and education networks in the states of Brazil for free.