Bringing education to the top of public networks in Brazil is not a simple task. This only happens with unity and a watchful eye from everyone involved. The most recent advancement of public education in Paraná on the Ideb (Basic Education Development Index), which ranks secondary education in the Paraná state network in 1st place in the country, is the reflection of a series of actions and investments, bringing new programs and knowledge to train the inhabitants of the Paraná of the future. The 2023 school year, which begins in February, will have the challenge of maintaining this status.
Since the rapid response to the pandemic with distance learning, the Government of Paraná, through the Ministry of Education, has developed a continuous training platform (Trainers in Action) and support materials for teachers with plans for all classes, at a time when the effort of these professionals has been fundamental for the return to normality. At the beginning of last year, the category benefited from an average readjustment of 20% of remuneration, a professional appreciation which is one of the paths to success.
For students, the actions of the last years range from the creation of new programs and disciplines to the attention paid to food safety, which is important to make studies a priority axis. Investment in school meals has increased from BRL 135 million in 2019 to BRL 465 million in 2022, with new menu options – greater quantity and variety of protein – and an increase in the number of meals, with the Mais Merenda program , guaranteeing three meals per shift, adding a snack at the entrance and another at the exit, in addition to the full meal in between.
With a view to developing young people’s skills for the future – and even for the present – computational thinking (programming) and robotics were included in the curriculum of the new high school, in addition to extracurricular programs after school hours. Every year, more and more students are involved, so much so that these areas of knowledge already extend to the last years of primary school – in 2024, for example, more than 400,000 students will have programming in their curriculum.
This modernization also included investments in technology with several educational digital platforms to make learning more interactive and engaging. Nearly 20 million activities were completed last year, including essay writing with artificial intelligence, English with practice exercises by application, and math problem solving through playful games.
The recognition of the most successful students throughout their training goes through the win the world, an international exchange program which, in 2022, took two hundred students from the state network to Canada and New Zealand to study a semester with a first-world education, improve their knowledge of the English language and discover the local culture. This year, the idea is to take a class to France and from 2024, more than a thousand students will be sent to Australia, Canada, the United States, England and New Zealand.
Maintaining this pace is a daily challenge, but one that has paid off. This is a message for the approximately 1 million students and 100,000 education professionals who will begin the school year in the coming weeks.
“In addition to first place at Ideb, we started the year with the news that almost 40% of those approved for the entrance exam to UFPR, one of the most competitive in Brazil, had undergone training in the state network, which shows the level of excellence we have achieved. We are planning structural and methodological investments and the objective is to grow even more and consolidate Paraná at the top”, has said Education Secretary Roni Miranda.
With the Paraná State News Agency
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