Brazil has produced many good news recently in the education field. The percentage of school evasion has dropped, never before we have had so many children in school, and the importance of the teacher and its role in education has been the topic of many discussions and new projects.
However, the country of Brazil has today the worst educational index among the largest Latin American countries, and that´s not considering the fact that Brazil still has one of the lowest rates of internet access in all the emerging countries, as shown by research conducted by Firjam (Rio de Janeiro Industry Association). This study also showed that Brazil risks becoming excluded from the technological world if drastic and urgent measures are not taken now.
The average school attendance by an european student is 16 years. In Chile, it is 9,5 years. In Brazil, only 6,2 years. That means that this is not even sufficient to complete the basic education (junior high and high school). This picture of the educational level in Brasil obviously puts Brasil in a disadvantaged position in the world scenario. It was a grave failure to ignore for so many years education as a tool of development. This has caused Brazil to have a ill-educated workforce if compared with countries with the same economic level and background.
Taking into consideration this realist view of our education standards, FUNDAMED has selected the education area to make a positive impact by making available to public schools and community development entities easy access to computers, products and services that will assist our campaign to better prepare our students and make them citizens.
FUNDAMED´s mission in the educational field will have 05 major objectives and aims to integrate the technology advantages to the brazilian public schools , and increase the quality of the education:
01. Schools: Need for the appropriate infrastructure to access the internet
02. Classrooms: Need access to creative and rich educational digital content
03. Teachers: Need the ability to integrate technology and education
04. Students: Need to have acess to the internet and digital information
05. Businesses: Need to have a workforce that is technology literate
To make all these objectives possible, FUNDAMED will concentrate in the following
programs:

01. ACCESS TO COMPUTER LABS (10 COMPUTERS)

· Complete computer lab with 10 computers
· Set up wiring and infrastructure necessary for computers and internet
· Support: Augusto Computer Project

02. TEACHER TRAINING – EDUCATIONAL AGENTS

· Training for capacity building for the teachers
· Teachers will become digital educational agents
· Support: CEFET / Fund. Banco do Brasil / Local support

03. ACCESS TO THE INTERNET – EACH STUDENT WILL HAVE E-MAIL

· Every student will have access to the internet
· Each student will have an e-mail account
· Support: AOL / TERRA / IG

04. PROJETO PENHOR (INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE)

· Municipal Law
· Reward for top students to travel overseas
· Support: Fundaçao Liliani