Message from the President of Maple Bear Global Schools: Donation to UNICEF Brazil

We know that students who attend Maple Bear Canadian schools in Brazil are lucky.

UNICEF Brazil estimates that there are 2.8 million school-age children and adolescents who have not fulfilled their right to have an education. The biggest groups that are excluded are adolescents from 15 to 17 years old (1,593,151), who should be in secondary education, and 4 to 5 years old children (821,595) who are not beginning school.

Since 2010, UNICEF Brazil through its global initiative Out-of-School Children (OOSCI) has been producing studies and situation analyzes to identify out-of-school children and adolescents and the causes for their exclusion.

As a result, the School Active Search tool – a digital technology developed by UNICEF Brazil in partnership with Instituto TIM (private sector partner), UNDIME (National Union of Education Municipal Secretaries) and CONGEMAS (National Union of Social Protection Municipal Secretaries) was launched in June 2017. It aims at allowing municipalities in Brazil to identify out-of-school children and to produce evidence on the causes of school exclusion.

Now, UNICEF Brazil wants to further develop methodologies and technological tools to help active search for out-of-school children and adolescents, allowing case by case management by local authorities and social assistance field workers until the (re)enrolment of children and adolescents in school.

Maple Bear Global Schools, as the global franchisor of Maple Bear Canadian Schools in Brazil, recently donated $100K USD to help make this happen.

The School Active Search is an innovative social technology aimed to support municipal governments to carry out active search for out-of-school children and adolescents, in order to improve their knowledge on the causes for school exclusion, and follow them after returning to school.

“The Active Search initiative is one of the most important strategies at UNICEF Brazil, as it deals with a major issue: the high number of out-of-school children and adolescents,” says Ítalo Dutra, Chief of Education, UNICEF Brazil. “Not only are they entitled to proper education, but the absence from school is a crucial cause of social exclusion.”

“We are very excited to have Maple Bear Global Schools working with us to guarantee that every child and adolescent in Brazil has the possibility of learning and realizing their right to education.”

Maple Bear Canadian schools have thrived in Brazil in the past decade and our numbers continue to grow. Maple Bear Global Schools is pleased to have taken a small step to ensuring that more Brazilian school children enjoy their right to an education.

Rodney Briggs

President, Maple Bear Global Schools