Counselors, managers and secretaries of Education from many Brazilian municipalities are being introduced to the Busca Ativa Escolar platform at the XXVII National Meeting of UNCME (Union of Municipal Education Councils). The event takes place between 27th and 29th of November at Luís Eduardo Magalhães Convention Center, in Ilhéus-BA. The teams of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Instituto TIM are participating on the Meeting, aiming at engaging the participants into spreading the initiative to the city governments of their own municipalities.
On the 28th, Júlia Ribeiro, Education officer at UNICEF, and Thaís Rigolon, from Busca Ativa Escolar team, conducted a presentation at the main auditorium for about 500 people. They talked about the initiative and the partnership between UNICEF and Instituto TIM concerning the development of the platform. Júlia reckons that the municipal counselors are solid allies upon the identification of children and adolescents that are away from school.
“Upon their important function of following and supervising public policies, the municipal education counselors count on this strategy to ensure the universalization of the access to education, which is certainly a goal on the educational plans of their municipalities,” said Júlia. “The municipal education counselors are important voices that contribute to the identification of children and adolescents that are away from school and that ensure every girl and boy at the municipality their right to education, with no exception.”
Project Busca Ativa Escolar also counts on an extensive area at UNICEF’s stand to offer training sessions on the platform. The mayor of Ilhéus, Mário Alexandre, was one of the visitors and promised to adhere to the initiative. The president of UNCME, Gilvânia da Conceição Nascimento, as well as the secretary of Education in Ilhéus, Eliane Oliveira, have also been at the stand to mobilize the representatives of each municipality.
So far, more than 450 municipalities and the state of Goiás have already joined the platform, developed in a partnership among Instituto TIM, UNICEF, the National Union of Municipal Directors of Education (Undime) and the National Collegiate of Municipal Social Assistance Managers (Congemas). Busca Ativa Escolar is aligned to the goals of the initiative Fora da Escola Não Pode! (Out-of-School Children), from UNICEF.
