The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will support the efforts of Movimento Todos Pela Educação (All for Education Movement), a broad-based Brazilian civil society organization to ensure universal access to quality education for all Brazilian youth by the country’s 200th birthday.
Through its National Educational Plan, Brazil aims to achieve increased literacy rates, test scores, and access to early childhood education, among other educational indicators, before the bicentenary of Brazil’s independence in 2022.
Although school access has expanded significantly in recent years with 97 percent of children ages 6 to 14 in attendance, quality remains the country’s greatest educational challenge. All for Education Movement has an important role on raising awareness with civil society on educational challenges, establishing a set of concrete goals for monitoring progress, and engaging in a fruitful dialogue with public officials.
A $2.3 million grant has contributions from the IDB Trust Funds (Korean Poverty Reduction Fund), civil society and private sector partners, and will fund classroom technology, research and capacity-building to help Brazil meet its ambitious educational goals.
One specific pilot program supported by this initiative will use information and communication technology (ICT), shown to have a positive impact on learning outcomes, in 75 Brazilian classrooms reaching over 2,000 students. This grant will also support REDUCA, the Latin American Network of Civil Society for Education, a group of organizations that seek to bring quality and inclusive education in the region.
As the executing agency, the All for Education Movement will facilitate the use and documentation of innovative strategies, policies and practices by coordinating with key stakeholders, such as public and academic policy makers. Civil society organizations and private sector partners supporting this initiative are to include Samsung Korea, Instituto Natura, Itaú BBA and Fundação Telefônica Brasil.