Friday, February 5, 2010
Manifestation of teachers in Pentecoste.
After getting into the building, they went upstairs till the Secretary’s office and they made her appear and talk to them. They have only achieved that due to all the noise they made and the pressure of the strong knockings on the door to force her to appear.
That manifestation has been largely discussed almost everywhere in Pentecoste; and one of the places where it has been discussed was in PRECE’s radio show called Student’s Heart Program. Last Monday 2nd Cláudia Melo, the President of SINDSEP, was interviewed and clarified all the doubts concerning the happening. The manifestation caused controversy in Pentecoste: in one hand, the Town Hall accuses the civil servants of riots; on the other hand, the servants affirmed that the Education Department staff is rude and aggressive.
The teachers claim the division of the Fundeb (Maintenance and Development of Basic Education Fund and Enhancement of Education Professionals) money, a new Career Plan and a minimum wage.
And you, what do you think of this political act? Be part of the discussion, post your comments below this article.
Originally written by Edilson Costa – Pentecoste EPC.
Version by Marcelo Moreira
Which are our greatest results?
This last week left many student’s heart from Ceará anxious due to one single reason: the disclosure of the UFC 2010 vestibular final result. After undergoing the second phase of vestibular, many people devoured hurriedly time to have some news. Some pretended they had not even taken the exam and did not check the result, but in fact they’ve hoped for some news, being bad or good, in a sort of clandestine happiness. Others could not even sleep well at night while imagining the impact of the result in their future plans.
Trapped in this kaleidoscope of sensations many students of PRECE have spent their time over the last weeks which preceded the final result of the examination. All of our EPC’s – Cooperative Popular Schools – have had students involved in the whole process (both the first and second phase of the exams). The feeling that portrays that is like a metonymy; not only the ‘vestibulandos’ (as we call the students who undergo vestibular) suffered the tension caused by the super-awaited news, but also did their parents, their siblings and all of their families. They all shared the result direct or indirectly.
Every year, PRECE accommodates students who come from the countryside to Fortaleza in order to take the exams. That implies the involvement of many undergrads who make up the Students Support Team (another PRECE project). They always give full support for lodging, food, counseling and help in shifting the locations of the tests. Not only undergrads offered some help, but many other PRECE friends and College professors. As a matter of fact, several people did really help.
Right after the disclosure of the result, the reactions of many families were quite heterogeneous: there was the student who disappointedly cried, sobbing in the loneliness of her bedroom; the boy who turned a couple of whole nights in ‘alcoholebretion’ with friends; the other guy who over-prayed thanking God for the achieved victory; the young girl who will have to find a job soon because she cannot keep on ‘only studying’; the lad who did not expect to pass the examinations and cried happily due to the unexpected result of his approval; there is the other girl who decided to study hard as soon as she received the news that she hadn’t passed; all the proud facilitators of their pupils good results; the student who will count every single hour till the day he will taste the picturesque ‘feijoada’ and the yellow juice(no one really knows its true flavor) in the University Restaurant every Wednesday; the girl who choked on a piece of sadness, which left her dumbfounded; there was the father who received the news down there in the plantation and his eyes filled with the sun because another of his kids was about to get into university.
Also this week the media took advantage of that and sold many spaces to schools in the dissemination of results. There were several pages in newspapers and magazines presenting pictures of students and their positions in the vestibular ranking. Advertisements on TV prime time, inviting and exciting stickers for the radio. There were so many first places that they even overcame the number of courses the University offers. This is one of those intriguing things.
Many PRECE students passed in the tests. More than 50 students who came from public school and from poor families got into the Federal University. That is a striking result, especially because we all know each other’s life story. These are excellent results, but they are not our greatest results yet. Getting into university does not imply local development, that does not imply necessarily social changes, that does not imply transforming lives. As a matter of fact, those are not our greatest results. What then are our greatest results? The question is very good and there are multiple answers for them. Amongst them, I can point out some: the entry into the university is only a needed crossing, but it needs vector motion. By that I mean the return to local communities and PRECE is what makes all the difference. The involvement, the knowledge exchange and the experience of those who get into university, besides their commitment with many of our more than 20 projects spread about the areas of formal education, economic development, social control and governance is what supports my theory.
I do not mean the vestibular approvals are not important; those who did not pass the exams must be sure that that is just a consequence of the whole process. However, our greatest results might not be measurable. They move unnoticed by many people, but even imperceptible they contribute to the changing of reality in Pentecoste and in many other towns where there is the presence of PRECE. With this work, we are fighting for the construction of a new society, for the construction of the towns we want.
Original version written by Nonato Furtado
Graduated in Pedagogy from Acaraú River valley State University (UVA – Universidade Estadual Vale do Acaraú) and in Languages (Portuguese and Spanish Linguistics and Literature) from Federal University of Ceará – UFC. He is Currently undertaking the Masters Degree course on Linguistics at UFC and works as a Literature and Spanish teacher in UFC extension projects and in private schools of Fortaleza. He constantly writes short stories and chronicles, all of them rooted in poetry.
Version by Marcelo Moreira
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
APAEB (Association for Sustainable and Joint Development in the Sisal Region) presents: an example of fight against poverty.
Some illustrious members attended the meeting: the Assistant Secretary of Education, Professor Maurício Holanda; the Principal of the Training School for Political Leaders, Professor Alberto Teixeira; the Coordinator of Territorial Development and Fight Against Rural Poverty, Mr. José Bartolomeu Cavalcante; the General Coordinator of PRECE, Professor Manoel Andrade Neto; the President of ADEL, Mr. Wagner Gomes; the Editor of Northeast Twenty-one Magazine, Mr. Francisco Bezerra; Presidents of associations affiliated to UAVRC (Union of Associations of Canindé River Valley); COAMP (Central of Associative Organizations of Pentecoste); ADEL members, PRECE students and community members.
After Mr. Ismael Ferreira’s projects presentation, a session of round-table talks started. The main point was the discussion on the presented projects and economic, social and political matters concerning the semiarid. The audience also made part in the discussion.
The event ended with the launch of the 6th edition of Northeast Twenty-one Magazine. It contained an 8 pages report on PRECE. Some samples were handed out amongst those present in the meeting.
Downloadable presentation with Power Point pictures about the event:
http://www.4shared.com/file/213936925/f184bd3/20100130_APAEB.html
Check out and download the full digitalized report of Northeast Twenty-one Magazine:
http://www.4shared.com/file/213399232/377a2b41/Revista_Nordeste_Vinte_Um.html
More info about APAEB:
http://www.apaeb.com.br/hp_new/apaeb.html
Version by Marcelo Moreira
Closure activities of the Cooperative Student Project’s second year.
Last December 20th the closure activities in 2009 of the Cooperative Student Project occurred in the DNOCS (Departamento Nacional de Obras Contra as Secas – National Bureau of Works Against Drought) research center auditorium, Pentecoste. The results of the didactic projects results achieved by each subject of the project were shown in the ceremony. Geography, Mathematics, Portuguese and English were the subjects which stood out. Their didactic project presentations were the most dynamic; whereas the other subjects presented their report by facilitators and students speeches. Besides the presentations, the moment was used for the realization of a festivity; students had the chance to develop some fun activities, such as dancing and taking pictures. 100 students, 10 public school teachers (who were engaged to the project since its early beginning) and 12 facilitators (the most common term for ‘teacher’ used at PRECE) made part in the development of the project in 2009.
The Cooperative Student Project is part of PRECE. It was developed in a partnership with some institutions, such as BrazilFoundation and HSBC Solidarity. Its actions benefit public school teachers from Pentecoste so that they can develop training educational activities such as courses, workshops and speeches; all that happens under the scope of cooperative actions. The project provides the teachers with those activities in order to enhance the quality of public schools in Pentecoste.
The focus of the project is also the student and his/her intellectual autonomy. That can be reached by the Cooperative Learning methodology based upon study groups (cells, as they are called in PRECE) and on Project Pedagogy. That stimulates students to act as young protagonists in the classroom, in the whole school and, most importantly, in their communities.
The directly benefited students come from the 6th to the 9th grades in the Elementary School. The project’s main goal is to work in partnership with Public school so that it can become a place that stimulates participation, dialogue and solidarity among all its constituents in the teaching-learning process.
Ana Maria Teixeira Andrade is the coordinator of the project. She studied Languages (Linguistics/Literature) and she is currently undertaking her Masters Degree Course on Literature at UFC (Federal University of Ceará). Most facilitators of the project are undergrads at UFC: Vilamar Moreira, Fellipe dos Santos, Francisco das Chagas (Bill), Hérmeson Silva, Maria da Conceição Mota (Daniele), Maria de Fátima Lopes, Jacilane Bezerra da Silva, Luíza Ravena Araújo Pontes, Ana Cláudia Rodrigues Ferreira, Myllana de Sousa, Philipe Quintiliano, Rejane da Silva, Shirlene Castro, Sonia Maria Holanda and Fábio Júnior. The only facilitator Who has already finished college is Jorge Araújo.
Version by Marcelo Moreira
PRECE celebrates 15th anniversary with many results
Last December 7th, 2009, exactly at 6 p.m., over a hundred students of PRECE presented their projects and results in the Rectory auditorium of the Federal University of Ceará (UFC) to commemorate 15 years of PRECE. Amongst the 200 hundred people in the place, admirers and cooperators of the program, professors, students, Deans and even the President of the University, Jesualdo Farias, made part in the cheerful event.
The main theme of the evening was: “The contribution of UFC/PRECE to the inclusion and permanence of popular origin students in Higher Education and to the local development of their home communities”. The event started with a brief presentation of the projects developed by PRECE, conducted by its creator and current coordinator of the program in UFC, Professor Manoel Andrade Neto – Department of Organic Chemistry/UFC. Right after that, the audience had the chance to hear fantastic life stories told by members of PRECE who felt grateful sharing their experiences and the importance of the program to their lives with the fervorous audience. José Noberto Sousa Bezerra – Doctorate student in the Department of Chemistry/UFC and one the seven first students of PRECE – was the first to head up to the stage and fill the people’s hearts up with enthusiasm. He was soon followed by Carlos Roberto de Sousa Gomes – Bachelor’s degree in Agronomy/UFC and one of the seven first as well. Maraíza Alves Teixeira – Pharmacy student – was not one of the seven first, but she did really have a lot to say about the importance of PRECE in all of our lives. Last but no least we had Maria Liana Santiago – Librarianship freshman - and her touching story.
After all the speeches, a section of round-table talks was conducted by Professor Manoel Andrade and was constituted by the President Jesualdo Farias, the Dean of Graduate Studies Professor Custódio Luis Almeida, the Dean of Students Affairs Professor Clarisse Ferreira, the Dean of Extension Professor Salvador da Rocha, and the Coordinator of the Center for Community Psychology Professor Verônica Ximenes.
The participants of the round-table talks emphasized the importance of PRECE. The statement of the Dean of graduate studies, Custódio Almeida, called special attention; he affirmed the creation of a UAB-Universidade Aberta do Brasil Center (it basically works like the Open University) in Pentecoste. He declared that he has been working hard in order to overcome the main obstacle to the creation of the center: the proximity of an existing center which is less than 100km (about 40 miles) from Pentecoste. One of the criteria for the creation of a center states that the centers must have more than that distance from each other. The Dean of Extension, Salvador da Rocha, also shared peculiar statements with the audience; he presented the proposal to turn the extension activities undertaken by University students (such as the activities undergraduate students perform in PRECE with the help of the University) into credits in the curriculum, as if they have taken a subject and then acquired credits for that. The President Jesualdo Farias pointed out the importance of programs like PRECE and that he will also help with the creation of a University Center in Pentecoste.
That event was one part of the celebration which commemorates 15 years of PRECE. The celebrations started last November 21th with an event in the local community called Minguá (in Pentecoste), stared by the undergraduate students who came from that region and representatives from all the Cooperative Popular Schools (EPC’s – Escolas Populares Cooperativas) of Pentecoste.
Version by Marcelo Moreira
