- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - Hier 08:07

Reading the writing on the wall

DEBBIE JACOB AS OUR children head off for the July/August school holiday, I think of Sobral, an impoverished city in Ceará, one of Brazil’s poorest districts, which has become a model for educators everywhere. How Sobral, a municipality of 200,000 people with 73 per cent of its people living below the poverty level, addressed an education crisis in the culture of poverty remains a stunning story of educational reform 30 years later. In the 1990s, only one-third of Sobral’s population had completed elementary school. No one expected students to succeed, let alone know how to read. Sobral’s educational reform began with one man, the newly elected mayor, Cid Gomes. He identified the district’s main problem: illiteracy, and targeted it. Nearly half of Sobral’s grade two students could not read a single, simple word. Gomes got political leaders to support his goal of having every child in the district reading and writing by the end of second grade. An unwavering commitment to this goal by politicians, parents and educators and an innovative plan created a blueprint for success. First, Sobral replaced 1,000 unqualified, underperforming teachers who had been appointed for political reasons with high-performing teachers. Studies show that a high-performing teacher in a classroom is the equivalent of four years of learning. Students leap forward with high-performing teachers and lag behind with under-performing teachers. The district allocated 60 per cent of its financial resources towards teachers’ salaries, catapulting poor teachers into the ranks of well-paid professionals. The new system encouraged individuality and creativity in the classroom. Teachers could be innovative and experimental. They would be held accountable for their performance. Sobral focused on one goal: reading, set doable goals, empowered teachers, and used assessments as tools to improve learning. Under this new plan, Sobral's politicians and Brazil’s Ministry of Education would abandon past practices, give schools more autonomy and hold them accountable for results. In other words, they abandoned the colonial model of education. Administrators listened to teachers’ recommendations and implemented many of them. They revised a teacher career scheme, gave teachers more professional development and provided them with more relevant teaching material. Accountability mattered at every level. The plan made it clear that teachers, administrators, politicians and parents had to be on board. Regular communication informed all stakeholders of problems and progress. In 12 years, Sobral, which ranked 1,366 before implementing its new education plan, rose to first place among all municipalities in Brazil. They outshined all the “prestige” schools in the country. Educators watching this dramatic rise noted three important principles: 1. Educational policies are more likely to succeed when teachers have a voice in shaping them. Autonomy and accountability go hand-in-hand. 2. Changes in an educational system should be clear, doable and rewarding for teachers and students. 3. At the system level, data is critical to improve teaching, learning and accountability. Diagnostic learning assessments occurred twice a year, and results were scrutinised at every level. Educators implemented improvement plans. Immersed in this new direction for education and its goal of having every student read by second grade, Sobral did not forget students in higher grades. It implemented a remedial reading programme. No student got left behind. The northeastern state of Ceará, known for growing cashews and coconuts and its poverty, now boasts one of the biggest success stories in education. The 85 elementary schools and 34,000 students rank highest in reading and maths scores all over Brazil. This remarkable story of commitment and transformation started with one man’s vision. Sobral overcame the stigma that students in the culture of poverty cannot learn and are doomed to be dropouts. It proved that committed, professional, high-performing teachers are more important than any imposed educational system,which forces schools to adhere to rigid formats designed to make all learning look the same. Real education is not about teaching for a test or adhering to the latest academic programme. It’s about life-long reading. Sobral was brave enough to recognise that all education begins with reading. Consider what we could do if this country shed the shackles of Caribbean-style, colonial education with its testing system and focused on ensuring every child could read. What if we carried our creative spirit into the classroom using high-performing teachers committed to education and paid properly for their services? Education is supposed to be fun and relevant with no child left behind. If we achieve this goal, we will create confident citizens and reduce dropouts. Check out a moving story on Sobral’s educational revolution and a 30-minute documentary on Sobral at https://crpe.org/story-of-sobral/ The post Reading the writing on the wall appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.