MST schools are held up as an example of public education in the pandemic

From the MST webpage

A study entitled “Does public education have quality: five lessons from seven low- and middle-income countries” was presented at the World Bank’s annual event this past Tuesday (28/9). Among examples from around the world, the Global Consortium on Privatisation of Education and Human Rights (PEHRC), of which the National Campaign for the Right to Education is a member, chose MST schools in Brazil.

The recognition showed the world that public education has quality, as the study states: “MST schools show how citizens learn about their rights and how to monitor policies and demands for social and educational rights.”

“In Brazil and India, historically excluded groups are mobilizing in initiatives that aim at social inclusion and equality. Education aims to promote citizen participation for the guarantee of rights, with a focus on the most vulnerable and marginalized people,” says the document on MST schools and India’s Muskaan Project.

During the recognition it was also highlighted “local policy engagement and advocacy in which parents, students and communities learn about and exercise their rights, actively diagnose problems, seek solutions and interact with other stakeholders to promote change.”

In this sense, the document points out that the relationship of the communities in the construction of the educational processes is fundamental. And the MST has historically been able to develop that relationship. “School communities have mobilized to improve local schools, which has involved the engagement of municipal authorities to secure better funding.”

Several education experts from academia and civil society were consulted in the construction of the document. The examples were selected through desk research and preliminary interviews, arriving at seven cases from Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Namibia, and Vietnam, in addition to the MST in Brazil, and the Muskaan Project in India. In all cases, secondary education data, available prior to Covid-19, were analyzed. There were 13 civil society organizations and four academics who reviewed the cases.

Koumbou Boly Barry, United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, and Jaime Saavedra, Senior Director of Global Education Practice at the World Bank, were present at the conference to present the study. Helena Rodrigues, for the Campaign, and Marina Avelar, a member of the Campaign Network, who participated in the debate as a consulting researcher responsible for the study, were also present.

Access here the study summary Access here the full study

*Edited by Fernanda Alcântara