School Strengthening Fund
(Fundescola) II

Project BRA/00/027 -- Start Year: 2000; Approved Budget: US$ 20,000,000; End Year: 2002; Implementing Agent: NEX (National Execution Related Projects); Executing Agent: Fundescola.

Project background and rationale: Brazilian education has experienced significant improvement during the last three decades, especially for what concerns the primary level of education. In order to continue this positive trend, in 1997, the Brazilian Government has presented to the National Congress a National Education Plan, which defines three priorities:

1. Obligatory school enrollment for children from 7 to 14 years old;

2. Access to education for adults and illiteracy eradication

3 Increased access to kindergarten and medium and superior education.

Within this framework, IFIs and UNDP provide, respectively, financial and technical support to the Brazilian government for what concerns intervention in the three regions of the North, North-East and Center-West, which are lagging behind in terms of level of education.

Project development goal: This project, which is a continuation of the project BRA/98/011 -- School Strengthening Fund I, aims to improve the performance of primary education in the three above mentioned beneficiary regions, to increase the access and the permanence of the children in all grades and to optimize the quality of the school, of the classrooms and of the results.

Project immediate objectives and expected outputs: Four strategies are pursued in order to accomplish this main objective:

1. Adoption of minimum standards for school operations (infra-structure and teaching quality);

2. Adoption of a School Development Plan conceived with the participation of the school community;

3. Community mobilization and participation to school life;

4. Adoption of innovative methodologies that truly respond to specific students needs.

The above mentioned strategies will be carried out through the realization of four immediate objectives:

1. The improvement of management and operational skills (bidding, work plan, accounting and finance) of the technical staff involved in the implementation of the project;

2. The improvement of school management skills of the professionals, the decision makers and the community; the provision of pedagogical formation and information necessary to the improvement of teachers' and students' performance;

3. The provision of technical inputs in order to ensure that the schools meet minimum standard requirements to become operational. The joint participation of the State's Secretariat of Education, the schools and the beneficiaries' communities in implementing the project is expected to guarantee the sustainability of its results.

Contact details: Fundo de Fortalecimento da Escola II (FUNDESCOLA II) Ministério da Educação, Direção Geral do FUNDESCOLA, Via N 1 leste - Pavilhão das Metas, 70.150-900 Brasilia DF, Brazil