Fruit of a partnership between UNICEF and Undime, the project helps children and adolescents to access basic education

Credit: Raoni Libório / UNICEF-BRZ

By: Eduarda Nunes – Lupa do Bem / Favela em Pauta

The Covid-19 pandemic created, accelerated and amplified several social problems and exclusion and school dropout were some of them. The closure of schools, the unfeasibility of certain jobs, hunger and the need for social isolation were some of the factors that, in 2021, increased the number of children away from school by 171%, when compared to the year before the pandemic ( 2019). It was in this scenario that the Busca Ativa Escolar – BAE – (School Active Search) emerged, an initiative that helps Brazilian states and municipalities to return children and adolescents to schools.

In September 2020, the initial year of the pandemic, UNICEF – United Nations Children’s Fund, and Undime – National Union of Municipal Education Directors, launched the Busca Ativa Escolar (School Active Search) program, with the campaign “Outside of school you cannot, even if the school is working in other formats”. 

In addition to the campaign, strategies were also developed based on a social methodology and a platform of the same name, which support states and municipalities in identifying students who are outside the school environment, in addition to the reasons why this happens.

From this, a series of other works take place to ensure that children and their families start to be assisted, in fact, by the social protection network. Daniela Rocha, Unicef Education officer and BAE national coordinator, says that “an important impact that the search promotes is to support municipalities to better develop a culture of collaborative work because the strategy is not only touched by education, it needs the participation of social assistance, health, planning and other secretariats.”

The education official also says that it is important to encourage intersectionality to create a better collaboration arrangement aimed at guaranteeing the rights of children and adolescents.

School dropout diagnoses

In just over two years of project implementation, some barriers have been identified. The lack of nearby schools, the lack of vacancies in schools, and the lack or precariousness of school transport are some. 

In the family sphere, it was identified that the social vulnerability of families influences the issue of child labour, constant migration and various types of violence, which not only children and adolescents are subjected to, but all family members. Other factors, such as the lack of documentation, are still impediments that keep children away from schools and daycare centres.

In addition to these issues, Daniela also comments that the execution of pedagogical practices that do not dialogue or that make little sense to students and a flawed application of the intersectoral integration strategy can also influence these cases of exclusion and school dropout.

In addition to the work that is carried out with the public authorities, there is social mobilization that is carried out so that society, in general, understands that “being out of school is not normal, it is not natural and it is not desired, especially with certain childhoods and adolescences that, in common sense, society even accepts that they are out of school. An example of this are poor children and black children, who work and help with the family income”, he concludes.

Find out who can join the program

To participate in the program, it is necessary to access the Busca Ativa Escolar (School Active Search) website,  buscaativaescolar.org.br/, and follow the step by step to register the municipality, with the organization of a team, which is composed of: the Mayor Municipal, who makes the municipal adhesion; Political Manager; Operational Coordinator; Institutional Supervisors; Verifiers and Community Agents. To find out all the details, just visit the website or also follow Undime’s Instagram profile at @undimenacional.