Lagoa Santa, Minas Gerais. A compact for education

• Autor(a) principal: Marcelo, Eloi
• Data de Publicação: 2006
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Cadernos Cenpec (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://cadernos.cenpec.org.br/cadernos/index.php/cadernos/article/view/164
• topic: Young people; Youth; Youth leadership; Mobilization; Compact for education; Jovens; Juventude; Protagonismo juvenil; Mobilização; Pacto pela educação.

This report describes an entrepreneurial initiative by young people in the city of Lagoa Santa, a municipality in the greater metro area of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. Based on data in pamphlets that provided information on education in Minas Gerais as being number two in the grade repetition and school dropout index, behind only Piauí, the "Arrastão Cívico" (Civic Dragnet) initiative was developed, in an effort to locate children who were not in school and enroll them. This project was promoted by state and national media, which relied on support from Unicef, and drove creation of an NGO called Pacto de Lagoa Santa pela Educação (Lagoa Santa Compact for Education). This initiative grew, expanded and went nationwide, affecting other young people with a mobilizing spirit and youthful leadership. For example, nearly five thousand adolescents were mobilized in five cities near where Europeans first landed in Brazil, in southern Bahia. There, these young people went by the name Pacto do Sítio do Descobrimento pela Educação (Discovery Site Compact for Education). The report concludes that if we want to change something in our country, the youth are the path to take, providing them opportunities and creating conditions for them to decide how to move forward.