Starting this week, five thousand Brazilian public school teachers are participating in a project that will help them keep students away from drugs.
Brazil’s Ministry of Education, in partnership with the
University of Brasília (UnB), has prepared a series of 16 videotapes with hints
on how to enlighten, dialogue with, and enhance the self-esteem of children and
adolescents.
These videos will be presented in workshops, which will
also use books and instructions by specialists. Approximately 740 schools from
all over the country are participating in the project.
The Secretariat of Long-Distance Learning’s Director of
Production and Training, Carmem Neves, hopes the teachers will adapt the
information they receive to the reality of each region.
The project has
the backing of the National Anti-Drug Secretariat and the Presidential Office of
Institutional Security.
The Minister of Education, Tarso Genro, believes
that expanding the collaboration can strengthen the project.
“This is a program that acts before drugs become a deep-rooted
problem, before they become a matter for the police,” Genro contends.
“We want this to be a pilot project. We shall observe the way
it functions in order to extend it to other schools in the future.”
Agência Brasil
