New developments in policy

Raising teacher quality and training
The Ministry of Education has begun to introduce new standards for teachers, federally supported, higher quality teacher training programs and textbook screening and production. Such investment includes programs such as Mais Educacao, and the expansion of the federal technical schools. The federal government has also invested in policies like school-level planning under FUNDESCOLA, multi-grade teaching under Escola Ativa and capacity building for municipal education managers, with PAR.

Participation of non-governmental organizations
There are some examples of Brazilian government officials engaging with non-governmental organizations to support or manage teachers and schools:
Popular Center for Culture and Development took over the administration of the local Secretariat of Education between August 2003 and late 2004 and implemented a variety of new teaching tools in the rural schools of Araçuaí, a poor municipality in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.
In Salvador, capital of the northern state of Bahia, Axé Project got permission in 1999 to create the Barbosa Romeo Municipal School, targeting at-risk youngsters like street kids.

Partnerships with Brazilian companies
The presidents of several Brazilian companies, including DPaschoal car parts chain, the Gerdau Group and major banks Itaú, Bradesco and Santander, founded All for Education(See Todos Pela Educacao in Portuguese), and developed goals for Brazil's education and monitoring tools with help of U.S. and Brazilian education experts. All for Education engaged academic and media channels to help promote education as a national priority, and according to a poll by CNO/IBOPE education moved from the seventh biggest public concern to second, after crime.