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BRAZIL
G20 countries defend actions to bring schools and communities closer together
Projects show significant results in student performance
Published on October 29, 2024 at 10:03 pm
Credit: Ângelo Miguel/MEC
Actions and practices that bring schools closer to communities were the topic of the third and final meeting of the Education Working Group (GT), formed by representatives of the G20 countries. The meeting took place this Tuesday (29), in Fortaleza.
According to the special advisor for international affairs at the Ministry of Education (MEC), Francisco Souza, who coordinated the meeting, the intention was to address topics that actually came close to the reality of schools in different countries.
“I think what was missing from the group was being able to dedicate itself to themes more on the school level, which is exactly what we tried to do during this Brazilian presidency and, particularly, on this topic of school-community engagement”, he told the press.
During the meeting, country initiatives were presented so that they could inspire good practices.
This Wednesday (30), when there will be a meeting of the Education Ministers of the G20 countries, teachers and students will personally present projects and actions that worked.
One of them is Thando Ntintili, a student at Toli Senior Secondary School, located in a rural village in South Africa. He was part of an innovative community engagement project that helped improve the water quality of a local river, which was contaminated by human and animal use. The construction of a water filter restored the community’s dignity and allowed around 500 people to have access to clean water. The school was recognized as national champion for this initiative.
“School-community engagement is a concept, a difficult name that we use to refer to a very simple thing, the fact that the school is not a public facility isolated from the neighborhood in which it is located. So, the school doesn’t end at the wall. And, for the teacher-student relationship, for learning, it is very common for teachers themselves to think about the use of the space that is outside, in the environment. This is also part of our common curricular basis, in the importance of learning to interact with the specific context. And there is an interest among young people, children, in having learning connected to transformations”, highlighted MEC advisor Francisco Souza.
“The world is facing a learning crisis. Seven out of ten children worldwide aged 10 cannot read a basic sentence. Seven out of ten! Which means the global community is failing our children. We need urgent action”, said Unicef’s Global Director of Education and Adolescent Development, Pia Rabello Britto, in a press interview.
She highlighted that the evidence shows the importance of the school’s proximity to the community.
“When there is a safer environment nearby where the child lives, the likelihood of them learning is greater, especially girls. When they are in a safer environment, they are less likely to drop out of school, which, by the way, is a big problem in the world: 270 million children drop out of school. We cannot afford to lose any more children.”
Britto emphasized the importance of the subject being discussed within the G20. “To change education outcomes, one of the main determining factors is political commitment,” he said and added: “A platform like the G20 is a very important platform because it brings together the most powerful countries in the world, plus the European Union and the Union African, who shed light on what needs to be done. Therefore, the G20 has a very important role in raising awareness of the issue, building political commitment in some of the most powerful countries in the world to advance the agenda for learning and children.”
According to the Basic Education secretariat of the Ministry of Education, Katia Schweickardt, Brazil has initiatives that encourage the proximity of schools and communities.
She highlights that there is “a lot of evidence that significant learning processes happen when the community and families interact with the school”, she says. Therefore, according to her, the ministry itself has focused on promoting these practices.
“Last August, we launched the School and Community program, Proec, which aims to promote more effective and intentional integration of the community in the educational process, redefining the role of the school in the community”.
Proec will benefit more than 22 thousand schools with low socioeconomic level and high management complexity and more than R$60 million will be invested this year 2024. The secretary explained that each school had to build a project with at least three actions, developed with the participation of students, education professionals and their families.
After the Education GT meeting, a meeting of the Education Ministers of the G20 countries will be held this Wednesday (30). The discussions will result in a text that will be attached to the leaders’ declaration, the G20’s final document, to be defined at the Leaders’ Summit, on November 18 and 19, 2024, in Rio de Janeiro.
The Group of Twenty (G20) is the main forum for international economic cooperation. It is made up of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States, in addition to European Union.
G20 members represent around 85% of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP, the sum of all goods and services produced by a country), more than 75% of global trade and around two-thirds of the world’s population.
*The reporter traveled at the invitation of the Ministry of Education (MEC).
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