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“Beyond Letters” teacher training program is prequalified for 2010 edition of Ministry of Education’s technology catalogue
Released: February 5, 2010
Promon-backed program can now be implemented in towns that adhere to Joint Action Plan with funding from Ministry of Education
Além das Letras (“Beyond Letters”), a literacy program developed by Instituto Avisa Lá and run by Instituto Razão Social, has just been prequalified by the Ministry of Education for inclusion in its technology catalogue Guia de Tecnologias Educacionais (“Guide to Education Technology”). Instituto Avisa Lá and Instituto Razão Social are both education NGOs. The former specializes in teacher training, while the latter uses information technology to improve education across Brazil and is maintained by Promon and Gerdau.
The publication, which catalogues the nation’s best teaching and learning programs, functions as a benchmark to help schools and education systems implement projects using technologies that contribute to an improvement in the quality of basic education.
Prequalification means “Beyond Letters” can be used by municipal governments with funding from the Ministry of Education. To do so they must join up for the ministry’s “All for Education Commitment” Target Plan and Joint Action Plan (PAR), designed to promote the development of unified actions that improve basic education nationwide.
“Information technology is making significant contributions to education projects in Brazil and this kind of resource can no longer be overlooked,” says Walkyria Acquesta Dias, project manager at Instituto Razão Social (IRS). “The Ministry of Education’s technology catalogue extends the reach of ‘Beyond Letters’ by giving more teachers access to a methodology that has already produced positive results and has proved viable in practice.”
The “Beyond Letters” program is supported by expertise from Instituto Avisa Lá. IRS is responsible for technology management. “IRS’s mission includes identifying and supporting good projects by helping to make them viable and replicable in different parts of the country,” Dias explains. “We saw this program as an important teacher training experience and decided to partner with it. This gives it added momentum by extending the effectiveness of our partner’s face-to-face seminars with a virtual network for distance training and consulting so that staff in public schools can themselves train supervisors and other teachers.“
Having prequalified, “Beyond Letters” is eligible for certification by the ministry two years after publication in the Guia. This will be definitive but depends on a positive assessment of the program’s impact on the basic education quality indicators produced by INEP, the National Institute for Educational Studies & Research, attached to the ministry (INEP/MEC). Positive results in the municipalities where it is applied means the program will be certified by the ministry.
To date, “Beyond Letters” has benefited 297 teacher trainers in municipal departments of education, 2,149 schools, and some 338,950 schoolchildren in 98 towns and cities across 19 states. Promon operates in most of these, since one of its commitments is to leave a positive legacy for the communities in which its engineering projects are located.
About Promon Engenharia – www.promonengenharia.com.br
Promon Engenharia is part of the Promon Group and was founded in 1960. It is a Brazilian organization recognized for engineering and project management expertise coupled with strong entrepreneurial capacity. Its core business is the design, integration and implementation of complex infrastructure solutions for key economic sectors such as power, oil and gas, process industries, chemicals, petrochemicals, mining, and metallurgy.
In its 50 years of activity, Promon Engenharia has built one of the largest portfolio of projects completed by any Brazilian engineering firm in the infrastructure sector. In this period it has participated in initiatives that have directly contributed to the development of the nation, such as the construction of oil refineries, petrochemical plants, marine terminals, power plants and transmission systems, steel mills, mines, automotive and aircraft manufacturing facilities, telecommunications networks, office buildings, and major rail, road and mass transit systems.
Promon has ranked among the best places to work in Brazil by all 13 editions of the annual survey conducted by the Great Place to Work Institute and is also one of the few companies to figure in every edition of the Guia Exame/Você S.A. yearbook As 150 Melhores Empresas para Você Trabalhar (“The 150 Best Places to Work”). In 2007 it won the National Quality Prize awarded by Fundação Nacional da Qualidade. All these recognitions demonstrate the soundness of its management practices and the success of its business model.
Journalists requiring more information please contact:
A4 Comunicação
Priscilla Tavollassi – priscillatavollassi@a4com.com.br
Elton Frederick – eltonfrederick@a4com.com.br
Tel: +55 11 3897.4122 | +55 11 7152.7689
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