D-News

Representatives of the forty government schools selected as participants in the Megaphone at School survey attended a presentation of this Project last Thursday in the auditorium at the Municipal Education Bureau.  Once all their doubts had been cleared up, they all signed up for this survey!

Conceptualised by the Instituto Desiderata, the Megaphone at School survey is a participative project that trains secondary school pupils to interview other schoolchildren and their teachers in order to explore classroom opinions of the challenges offered by Secondary Schooling (6th to 9th grades).  These forty schools were defined through a sampling initiative undertaken by the Instituto Paulo Montenegro - which is a partner in this Project - designed to ensure fair representation of the diversity found in the municipal school network.

When opening this meeting, the Municipal Education Secretary reaffirmed the satisfaction and commitment of this Bureau to supporting the implementation of this Project.  The staff of the Health Promotion Centre (CEDAPS) - another Project partner in charge of training and coordinating the fieldwork of the schoolchildren - conducted the meeting in an innovative manner, starting with questions instead of leaving them to the end of the session.  Before learning all about this Project in detail, school Principals and Teachers asked questions about the Megaphone at School survey and secondary schooling that were answered during the event.  In closing, everyone took joint decisions on the best venues for the Project workshops, with the forty schools allocated to five hubs.

The next step for the Megaphone at School survey must be taken by the schools themselves: selecting the young interviewers from among their pupils, who will attend the workshops that are scheduled to begin in May.