4.1
By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education which must be free, equitable and of quality and leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes.
4.3
By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university.
4.4
By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and professional skills, to access employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship.
4.6
By 2030, ensure that all youth and at least a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy.
10-2
By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status.
10.7
Facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through the implementation of planned and well-managed migration policies.
A - Full integration of population dynamics into sustainable development with equality and respect for human rights.
B - Rights, needs, responsibilities and requirements of girls, boys, adolescents and youth
F - International migration and protection of the human rights of all migrants
American Convention on Human Rights
International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (CRMW).
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
Summary
Open Doors: Portuguese for Immigrants, is a public policy in the city of São Paulo which seeks to integrate the migrant population through language, providing education of Portuguese language in all levels.
Implementation Date:
Start:
06 / 26 / 2017
End: End: Currently in force
Interculturalism and non-discrimination - Fight against discrimination, xenophobia and racism Education - Intercultural education Interculturalism and non-discrimination - Inclusion and building of intercultural societiesHuman mobility
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Data from the Federal Police show a gradual and constant increase of the arrival of immigrants to São Paulo, with a continuous growth in the immigrant population in the city: 359,520 in 2013; 368,016 in 2015; 385,120 in 2016; 389,189 in 2017.
The assessment carried out by the Secretariat of Human Rights and Citizenship of the Municipality found some problems in the offer of Portuguese lessons in the city of São Paulo:
● The discontinuity of the existing offer in terms of physical infrastructure problems and necessary human resources for the continuity of the offered course.
● The dependence of resources and external support caused difficulties in the expansion of vacancies, both in cases of local demand increase and in the opening of new units that would offer the course.
● Given the territorial distribution of immigrants in the city of São Paulo, a city of 1,521.11 km2, there was a need to offer the course in more peripheral regions, in contrast to the existing offer until then, concentrated in the center of the city.
● Considering the specific linguistic needs and the socio-economic vulnerability of the immigrant population, it was necessary to create teaching material that could adapt to the specific needs of different social groups and nationalities, as well as organize the free distribution of teaching materials that would promote the continuation of the course participant.
● The assessments made by the schools regarding immigrant students showed that language represented a significant barrier both for the integration of those students to the school environment and their learning guarantee and for their communication and approach between the schools and their families as well, hindering even more their guarantee to their right to learn.
Enable immigrant population in the city of Sao Paulo to learn Portuguese language in basic, intermediate and advanced levels; irrespective of their nationality, migratory or legal status, towards their economic, social and cultural integration.
● Municipal Secretariat of Education of São Paulo (SME), through its Pedagogical Coordinator.
● Municipal Secretariat for Human Rights and Citizenship of São Paulo (SMDHC), through its Coordinating Office for Immigrant Policies and Promotion of Decent Work.
National Migration Law No. 13.445 of 2017 defines and regulates the understanding of the Union over the definition of immigrants and their rights in Brazil.
São Paulo Municipal Policy for Immigrant Population, Law No. 16.478 of 2016 and Decree No. 57.533 of 2016, legal framework that sets the principles and guidelines for the municipal public sector and regulates the policies addressed to the immigrant population of São Paulo.
The Interdepartmental Order SMDHC/SME No. 02/2017 organized the project “Open Doors: Portuguese for Immigrants”, setting up its goals and rules for its application by the participating schools.
International migrants, asylum applicants and refugees
Financial/legal/technical assistence Education and training Creation of entity/plan/programme Building of partnerships, networks, associations and coalitions
Agreements were entered into between the Secretariat of Human Rights and Citizenship and the Language Centre of São Paulo University and MemoRef Project of the Federal University of São Paulo in relation to the importance of the participation of experts regarding the teaching of Portuguese to immigrants, the theoretical and methodological development of teachers’ education who act in the course and the preparation of teaching material for the course participants.
The Secretariat of Education, based on the mapping made by the Secretariat of Human Rights and Citizenship, identified the schools closest to the places of concentration of immigrant population and invited them to be part of the first edition of the project.
In June 2017, the two first trainings courses were held with 80 trained professionals for the teachers interested in taking part in the project, promoted by the two secretariats in association with the Language Centre of Sao Paulo University.
The Secretariat of Human Rights and Citizenship and the Secretariat of Education, after a series of discussions that also involved the first schools interested in participating in the project, made the joint order that formalized the creation of the project, setting the course format and its working rules. However, there was a margin so that the participating schools may prepare a calendar and organize the classes to meet the particularities of each territory.
There was a wide dissemination of the project on the media, with coverage from the main communication media on TV, radio and the Internet, at a municipal and even national level, apart from the communication channels of the municipal Government. In this second case, dissemination before civil society organizations that work directly with immigrant population was emphasized. A more intensive dissemination of the project was also made in places of immigrant population concentration in the municipality.
The Reference and Assistance Centre for Immigrants (CRAI) under the Department for Human Rights and Citizenship provided telephone information services, a help desk or email service for people interested in participating in the project (Portuguese, Spanish, French, English, Lingala, Arabic, Swahili and Tshiluba). Apart from carrying out visits to school units, in order to provide technical support to teams that work directly with immigrants.
All participating schools received personalized posters to disseminate the project in their regions, as well as guidelines on how to secure greater efficiency in communication of the project and attention from people interested in participating in the course; specially how to deal with eventual difficulties in language communication.
“Open Doors: Portuguese for Immigrants” is innovative in Brazil as to getting a public, free, continuous and broad offer of Portuguese language lessons for immigrants, to the extent that based on its performance in municipal schools of education in São Paulo, it reaches all regions of the city with greater immigrant population concentration, quickly responding to changes in the socio-territorial dynamic in the municipality. In this way, the program is able to meet the existing demand in a fast, flexible and adequate way, without requiring great displacements from the benefited population. This is distinct from the offer given by civil society organizations, since they are quite concentrated in the central regions of the city and with difficulties to expand the number of vacancies offered.
In addition, the project is different from the courses offered by the private sector since it proposes an approach that combines teaching Portuguese language with socio-cultural integration of the immigrant population, professional material and training specifically designed for the profile of the population targeted, and the integration of its action in that of other municipal services, such as the services provided by the Reference and Assistance Centre for Immigrants (CRAI), of the Municipal Secretariat for Human Rights and Citizenship.
The design of this public policy is part of an improvement process of the actions promoted by the SMDHC on migration topics. In this sense, the Project was developed from historic demands of immigrants who live in the city of São Paulo, and hence, it is a consequence of the First Municipal Conference on Policies for Immigrants and the systematization of proposals from different representatives of immigrant communities.
In addition, the policy has been made from data collected in Portuguese courses for immigrants in the city offered by the civil society and by the Government, as well as the demands of immigrant population in the teaching of Portuguese language.
The purchase and distribution at schools of learning, and pedagogical, didactic and para-didactic materials is planned so as to motivate the project participants and teachers to carry out complementary activities and thus promote the permanence of the attending immigrants until the advanced module. In the same way, the printing of workbooks and additional outreach material is scheduled.
Formalization of the project through a rule jointly made by the Secretariats also contributes to the continuity of the project in the years to come, considering that its working rules are already well established and it is possible to implement them at any interested school.
Finally, the Secretariats plan to extend the project to more schools and regions of the city, with the reprinting of the teaching material and the provision of supplies that help schools in the development of the project.
The project monitoring is carried out in two ways:
1. collection, treatment and data analysis on participants through the OnLine School system, from the Municipal Secretariat of Education, which allows to verify the profile of the registered people as well as the number of bound and graduated students;
2. permanent contact between the Secretariat of Education, the regional Directorates of Education and the participating schools, which allows the identification of failures and their prompt correction.
Since this is a project that has been implemented for slightly over a year, actions still have not been organized to assess their impact. However, from the visits mentioned above, the responsible Secretariats have made an assessment of formative nature of the project, identifying the difficulties met by schools, professionals and beneficiaries of the project. In addition, instruments are being made so that professionals and beneficiaries may assess them.
Monitoring and assessment of the course will be supplemented by the biannual collection of more detailed data of immigrants and, annually, of teachers and schools. Systematization of data will be done during the second semester of 2018. The annual report will address the detailed profile of attending immigrants, the annual progress of the project and possible improvements for the following year.
Local goverment
Among the results, the following ones can be mentioned: 13 schools in the North, South, East and Central regions of the City joined the project with 323 people registered in the first semester and around 400 people registered in the second semester, of at least 26 different nationalities.
In the first semester, 233 immigrants completed the basic module. Data related to the second semester of the course are still systematized.
On 6 and 7 March 2018, São Paulo City Council took part in the Language for Resilience International Conference invited by the British Council, the organizer of the event held in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This conference was attended by national and local government authorities, and experts from different countries around the world to present and exchange knowledge and good practices in language teaching to immigrants and refugees.
The dissemination of the project is carried out through physical and virtual means. Virtual dissemination uses official means of communication of the City Council, municipal secretariats, consulates, partners of the most diverse immigrant communities and associated local and international organizations, as well as mailings and social networks. Physical dissemination, in turn, is carried out through two channels and with two different materials (folders and posters). One of the channels are the schools near their school communities, supported by the SME; the other is the SMDHC, through the distribution of posters and folders at fairs, squares and important locations for the different immigrant communities, as well as bus terminals and areas of mass circulation of people in the city.
Dissemination of the project for the schools of the Municipal Network of Education is led by the Core of Ethnic-Racial Education of the Pedagogical Coordinator, who at the beginning of each semester, mobilizes the thirteen regional directorates of Education of the municipality for the mapping of the schools with local demand and interest for the offer of the project.
In the first year of the project, television, radio and the Internet also played a very important role in disseminating enrollments and project actions, which received coverage from the major communication media of the municipality and even of national level.
4.1
By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education which must be free, equitable and of quality and leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes.
4.3
By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university.
4.4
By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and professional skills, to access employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship.
4.6
By 2030, ensure that all youth and at least a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy.
10-2
By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status.
10.7
Facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through the implementation of planned and well-managed migration policies.
A - Full integration of population dynamics into sustainable development with equality and respect for human rights. B - Rights, needs, responsibilities and requirements of girls, boys, adolescents and youth F - International migration and protection of the human rights of all migrants
American Convention on Human Rights International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (CRMW). Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).