AFTER-SCHOOL ACADEMIC PROGRAMS

Circulos de Leitura
(Instituto Fernand Braudel)

Location: São Paulo, Brazil

Launched: 2000

  • Reading Circles were created as a much-needed supplement to public school education for poor adolescents living in high-crime communities in Greater São Paulo.
  • Participants are between the ages of 12 and 19 years old and come from families in which parents have an average of four years of schooling.
  • During the weekly after-school and in-school sessions, reading is taught through literature and small group inquiry-based strategies that rely on strong peer leadership and mentoring. Materials covered include The Odyssey, Romeo and Juliet, Huckleberry Finn, The Little Prince and Robinson Crusoe.
  • The program’s goals are to develop the students' critical reading, writing and interpersonal skills in order to help them get into university and to improve their work opportunities. 
  • In 2006, the Brazilian university enrollment rate among students from the bottom two economic quintiles (based on household income) was 9%.  The Reading Circles participants fall into those two quintiles, and 80% of the high school senior participants took the university entrance exam and 75% of those students were accepted to universities in 2006.
  • Read an Estado de São Paulo article that highlights a former Reading Circles participant and instructor  
  • Read visitors' impressions... 

The Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics was created in 1987 by a group of economists, business leaders, journalists and public officials. It conducts research, organizes community projects and promotes public debate in search of solutions for the institutional problems of Brazil and other Latin American countries. The following articles present the Institute's findings from a comparative analysis that was funded by Worldfund of the public school systems in New York City and São Paulo:

OGUNTEC (Instituto Cultural Steve Biko)

Location: Bahia, Brazil

Founded: 1992

  • The Steve Biko Cultural Institute was founded to provide disadvantaged Afro-Brazilians with top-level educational opportunities that give them the tools necessary to lead productive lives.
  • OGUNTEC, one of the Institute's main programs, prepares high school students to pass Brazil's national vestibular university entrance exam.
  • Worldfund provides scholarship funding for the intensive, three-year, 20-hour/week program focused on math, science, technology and English.
  • Jovem do Instituto Steve Biko Receberá Prêmio das Mãos do Presidente Lula   

Related Articles:


Redes de Desenvolvimento da Maré

Location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Founded: 2007

    • Redes de Desenvolvimento da Maré (REDES da Maré) was founded in March 2007 with the mission to improve the quality of life and transform the culture in Rio de Janeiro's Complexo do Maré "favela" (slum) through education, health, job training and cultural programs. 
    • Maré is one of the largest and most dangerous favelas in Rio. Among the myriad problems plaguing the area is the lack of educational opportunities for its 140,000 inhabitants.  Sixteen public grade schools and three public high schools serve the residents of Maré and surrounding communities, leaving many young people without access to an education.
    • As a result, only 1% of the population in Maré has a university degree compared to 25% of the population throughout Rio de Janeiro.  
    • Recognizing the lack of access to and poor quality of educational opportunities, REDES da Maré offers the Pre-Vestibular Course for students preparing for the vestibular university entrance exams. 
    • Three groups students are enrolled in the nine-month, five-day-a-week, four-hour-a-day intensive course that includes Math, Portuguese, Science and Spanish sessions. 
    • Forty percent of the students who completed the 2007 course passed the highly competitive admission exams for the coveted spaces at Rio de Janeiro's public universities.  The complete results from the 2008 exams will be available in August 2009.