Education

In the era of knowledge, quality education is the key to the growth of a nation. After all, well qualified children in basic education become adults capable of developing their intellectual and productive potential to the maximum - and a generation of this kind of people will probably enable a true economic and social revolution in a country.

A quick analysis of the data available shows that, unfortunately, the schools in Brazil still have a long way to go in offering its children quality of education. In PISA, the OECD exam that measures the capabilities of students from various countries in science, mathematics and languages, the Brazilian results are quite poor. In mathematics, for example, Brazil occupies the 54th position out of 57 countries. Almost half of the students (46.5%) do not exceed the minimum level of knowledge expected for their age group. In comparison, in the same ranking, Swiss students appear in 6th place and only 4.5% of them do not exceed the minimum level.

It is high time we altered this alarming Brazilian scenario if we want to guarantee a better future for our country. But, how can we achieve this?

For seven years, the Fundação Lemann (Foundation), a non-profit organization, has been working in order to accelerate this transformation in public primary schools in Brazil. And, it has been doing this through a core focus: school management. Part of the principle is that it is important to have school directors and managers who are well prepared to lead the necessary process of change we will be facing ahead. After a thorough analysis of the reality of the education system in Brazil, the Foundation has defined five themes it considers strategic towards the advance of education in Brazil. They are:

Existence of standards of education and control in the classroom - The lack of a standardized curriculum and of continuous supervision on the part of school directors and managers,allows teachers, in each of the 159,000 Brazilian schools, to prepare their lessons in the way they think best. There is no control on what is effectively taught. It is essential to have clear and measurable objectives for pupils and schools, as well as mechanisms to monitor the advances to achieve these objectives, to guarantee the right of quality education to all children.

Use of assessments to improve the classroom - Today, there are several ways of assessing pupils. They allow us to trace a diagnosis of the educational system, objectively. Such information, however, is not always used to subsidize the development of better public policies and pedagogic practices. Without this, it is no use diagnosing the problems.

Balance between authority and responsibility - Nowadays, only a few Brazilian schools have the autonomy to decide on how to spend their financial resources or how to manage their own team. The consequence is a small and poor commitment to the pupils' results and the minimum involvement of the community with the schools. They need to have authority to make choices related to their operation and, at the same time, assume responsibility for achieving their learning goals.

Balance between rights and duties - The path to improve the education needs is, without any doubt, the value given to school teaching. Not only increasing salaries, but, mainly, increasing the responsibility of teachers. It is important for education professionals to have their rights respected, but, in addition, they need to be prepared to fulfill their primary duty: guarantee the access of all pupils to quality learning.

Spend on whatever aggregates value - In Brazil, besides the investment in education being reduced when compared to those of other countries, the resources are, in general, mistakenly applied and managed. In order to reverse this situation, it is necessary, for example, to systematically study how the expenditure on various consumables and policies affect the results of the pupils' learning.

It is possible to advance. But, first we need to do our homework.