Quality education is one of the most important structural challenges in Brazil. The educational context analysis has shown, in recent decades, challenges regarding access to public schools, the retention of students throughout their school career, and learning during basic education. The Covid-19 pandemic worsened this challenging scenario even more: 5 million students stopped going to school or lost access to school activities. The data is part of a 2021 survey by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), which also revealed the low school attendance and the high failure rate.

The Basic Education Development Index (Ideb), created in 2007, by the Anísio Teixeira National Institute for Educational Studies and Research (Inep), was designed to measure the quality of national learning and to establish goals for the improvement of basic education. The Ideb is a national reference indicator that enables the monitoring of the quality of education and is calculated every two years based on two components: the school performance rate (approval) and the performance averages (proficiency in Portuguese and Mathematics) on exams applied by Inep.

Suzano believes that in order to eradicate poverty, it is necessary to interfere structurally in education. In order for children and young people to continue studying, opportunities that generate an increase in family income are necessary. Therefore, Suzano invests in improving the quality of public education through the Suzano Education Program (PSE, in Portuguese acronym).

PSE has the goal of providing a comprehensive education for students during the different stages of life, considering the intellectual, physical, emotional, cultural and social aspects. To do this it works on the professional qualification of public school managers and educators, on the articulation between sectors (Education, Health, and Social Assistance) and on stimulating families and communities to participate¹ more in school life.
The methodology is based on an educational diagnosis and on prioritizing common challenges of groups of municipalities that integrate the Arranjos de Desenvolvimento da Educação (ADE) and that, jointly, build solutions to improve education in the territory.

Ideb increase in the municipalities identified as priorities² through the Suzano Education Program. The municipalities considered as priorities are those participating in the Suzano Education Program, which presented, in 2019 (last available evaluation), an index below the national target (Ideb below 6.0).    

Increase by 40% the IDEB in all municipalities considered a priority - from 4.6³ to 6.6 by 2030⁴.

During the second half of 2022, the Ministry of Education released the Ideb results based on the assessment applied by Inep, in 2021, allowing the first result measurement of the goal of increasing this index by 40% in all the municipalities considered to be priority until 2030.

A methodology for monitoring the Commitment was designed with intermediate goals⁵, which allow for periodic performance monitoring of those municipalities participating in the PSE that have reached the goal of 4.7 projected for the corresponding year.

Among the expected results in the Theory of Change (TdM) are city leaders convinced of the value and engaged in the implementation of the Education Development Arrangement (ADE). In this sense, it is worth noting the Cooperation Agreement that formalizes the legal constitution of the ADE of São Paulo, which is now called ADE 5+SP, as a public management instrument to ensure the right to quality education - an important achievement to foster regional educational policies. Furthermore, 100% of the ADEs, which participate in the Program, have prepared long-term Strategic Plans for educational improvement.

The TdM is also expected to result in municipal technicians being equipped to promote social engagement in school communities. In 2022, about 90% of the participating municipalities carried out intersectoral initiatives, contributing to a systemic action to strengthen social protection networks in schools, focusing on the comprehensive development of students.

It is also expected that school managers are prepared to conduct democratic management for learning. Thus, the PSE held the training of school managers on extra-school conditions, such as food insecurity, school exclusion, child labor, social exclusion, and ethno-racial inequality, allowing the recognition of the role of the school in social protection network.

The PSE has impacted nearly 200 thousand students in 888 schools in municipal public education networks throughout Brazil. More than 3,000 educators, including education secretaries, technical teams, school managers, and teachers have participated in the Program's trainings, promoting educational public policies and improving their pedagogical practices in the classroom.

Continue to implement the Program in the territories, focusing on challenges prioritized by the Arrangements, strengthening its governance and supporting educational managers in carrying out initiatives foreseen in the Strategic Planning. With the intersectorial groups, we intend to work towards the consolidation of protection networks, guiding public policies to ensure rights and seek democratic management.