Rogério José Barata, Education Champion

Creating guidelines for schools in quilombola communities to improve girls’ access to quality education

The Issue

The issue

Only four out of 15 quilombola communities in Mirandiba — a municipality in the northeastern state of Pernambuco — have operational schools. With so few schools in the territories, students must travel to the urban centre for schools. Long distances and unsafe, inconsistent transportation force many of these students to miss class or drop out.

Rogério José’s approach

Policy Reform

For the past 25 years, Rogério has fought for the rights of marginalised communities across Brazil as an educator and activist. He has many years of experience developing trainings for teachers on ethnic-racial relations, helping Indigenous and quilombola communities access education and researching the impact of poverty and exclusion on education. As a consultant on educational and cultural projects at Centro de Cultura Luiz Freire (CCLF), he conducts research to improve the quality of schools in urban, quilombola and Indigenous communities.

With his Malala Fund grant, Rogério works with local leaders, quilombola girls and state and local authorities to pass municipal guidelines for education in quilombola communities in the city of Mirandiba. The guidelines will establish criteria for the construction, maintenance and operation of schools, safe and quality school transportation and curriculum revision. If adopted, these guidelines will impact quilombola students across Mirandiba and provide a model for advocates around the country working to develop contextualised education for quilombola populations. Rogério also trains girls, teachers and local leaders to advocate for girls’ education.

Rogério José’s impact

In 2019, Rogério and his CCLF colleagues conducted video interviews with students and parents, asking them to detail their problems accessing education. The students talked about missing months of classes because school transportation vehicles broke down or because drivers weren’t receiving paychecks from the local government. Rogério shared these interviews on YouTube and in meetings with government officials, like the state prosecutor’s office and the federal public defender’s office. Following Rogério and CCLF’s efforts, the state prosecutor's office ensured that the municipal department of education repaired the school vans and increased their circulation through quilombola communities. The federal public defender's office also visited the territories to discuss with communities the problems that hinder access to school education.

Last year, Rogério and CCLF also met with quilombola leaders and girls to discuss what needs to be included in quilombola education guidelines. They have been encouraging quilombola leaders to tell the public prosecutor’s office the rights violations in their communities so the government can address them.

With the other Brazilian Education Champions, Rogério organised a public hearing in November 2019 where quilombola and Indigenous girls urged Brazilian leaders to support their right to learn. At the hearing, the Malala Fund Champions presented their new report, which encouraged the National Congress of Brazil to renew the Fund for Maintenance and Development of Basic Education and Valuing Education Professionals (FUNDEB). FUNDEB is the government financing mechanism that makes sure marginalised schools get the resources they need to support their students. Unless Congress takes action, FUNDEB will end in December 2020. Their report also explained the structural racism that prevents students in Brazil from learning and recommends how leaders can address these inequalities with changes and increases in education funding. The report also included testimonials from girls about the challenges facing their schools, including poor bathrooms, unreliable transportation, underpaid teachers and insufficient access to technology.

As a result of the years of advocacy from education leaders like Rogério, in August 2020, the Brazilian senate approved the constitutional amendment that makes FUNDEB permanent, an important step in ensuring that the government funds free and quality basic education for all students.