D-Notícias

Eager to support public policies in the education area, the Instituto Desiderata has decided to focus its investments at the secondary school level (6th to 9th year) in Rio de Janeiro.  This approach was selected after a period of intensive planning, when the Institute expanded its knowledge of government education in Rio de Janeiro through meetings with government authorities, private investors in education, visits to schools and much study and research. 

With 1,063 municipal schools, the Rio network has 405 secondary schools with 256,000 pupils.  This segment has very specific organisational characteristics in Brazil, with some worrying indicators - and Rio de Janeiro is no different.  There are more subjects to study and the teachers are specialists, while pupils are moving from childhood to adolescence, with personality changes that affect their learning processes. 

Despite gains in ensuring a universal access to education, the indicators reflect severe age x grade lags and high dropout rates, especially in sixth grade when these youngsters leave primary school to start their secondary education.  Moreover, they start sixth grade with weak knowledge of the content needed to continue studying and graduate from high school, not identifying with a teaching system unable to build up dialogues with their new languages.  This situation is worsened by the lack of public special policies addressing this stage, with few academic studies and private investments targeting these issues. 

Consequently, the Instituto Desiderata is currently working through a partnership with the Municipal Education Bureau, planning a diagnostic approach that will provide in-depth knowledge of the real situation of the municipal education network in Rio.  After this exploratory plunge, the Institute hopes to undertake actions with public and private partners that will enhance the quality of secondary education in the City of Rio de Janeiro.