Written by Paul Dix
Four armored cars, 6 bodyguards and two motorcycle outriders are what it takes to deliver some of the children to St Paul's School in Sao Paulo. The threat of kidnap is very real for the wealthiest families in Brazil's most famous school. This is not just for show.
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At St Paul's, the security is sharp. I was eyed with great suspicion on my first morning until I was rescued by a sharper suited and unflappable deputy head, Paul Morgan, "We can't just let anyone in", he smiles as he leads me beyond the security cordon and into a sanctuary. In the chaos of the worlds' third largest city, there is an oasis of learning staffed by dedicated teachers. They are surrounded by security that would unnerve even battle scared ‘Saaaf' Londoners but they are accustomed to it. It lets them concentrate on the most important things: the children, the learning and excellent teaching.
Of course the children live a privileged existence. But beyond the glamour of helicopters landing to whisk them away for the weekend there are hidden vulnerabilities. School life is punctuated with the sadness of parents who have to spend a great deal of time away, of children being looked after by paid staff, of friends leaving for far away places, never to return. Money never solves everything. Turmoil in your childhood is turmoil. Doesn't matter how many iPads you have. "Some of our children can have really tough lives" I am reminded.
The staff are a delightful mix of ex-pat and local teachers. This is a British School. Modern, forward thinking and open. Not scared by its privilege, but enthused by the opportunities it brings. The Headteacher, Crispin Rowe, formerly Head of a school in Bath, has fallen in love with Sao Paulo, the school and its unique situation. I can see why. The buzz of the city is unlike any other. It is a pulsing tide of humanity. This is Gotham City on steroids, pumped up and ready. A sea of concrete that swallows you up and I was happy to be swallowed.
Even with the most outstanding schools there are always adjustments to be made. The ‘tutting chair' has now been removed (you know the one where children are sat and every adult who walks past must shake their head slowly, lower their gaze and tut disappointingly) and the ‘sofa of shame' brought into question. Staff are enthused by 30-day action research projects that came out of three days of INSET. They are open, enthusiastic and willing to try something new. They welcomed me into their slightly crazy world but quickly reminded me that they were teachers just like me. Their dedication to their school and their students was palpable.
Despite recent improvements, in 2009 Brazil scored 0.557 in the Gini Index, which placed it as the world's tenth most unequal nation. Class division and educational apartheid starts at 5 with the poor funneled into run down public schools. The middle classes push their children into private institutions with the highest expectations and ambitions.
For the wealthiest in Sao Paulo money buys you a perfectly British education and plenty of security. At the top of the tree in South America the view is very different. Below, the poverty gap is as deep as it is wide. It makes inequality of opportunity in UK schools appear triflingly insignificant. In the UK the poorest children can make opportunity through education. In South America the Favelas, slums and shantytowns are consumed not just by poverty, but by hopelessness. For so many there simply is no escape to a better life.
I arrived in Belgrano, in the city of Buenos Aires and into the smallest training room in the world. A motely crew of teachers assembled for a Saturday morning training session in a room the size of a caretaker's cupboard. The Argentinian teachers were furiously engaged in a debate about private schools. The same conversation you might hear at a horrific Islington dinner party, the sins of private education versus the utopia of universality. ‘We should all send our children to state schools to improve the system' versus ‘I'm not sending my child THERE'. In Argentina as in Brazil there are is a free education for everyone but the quality is so variable that many people will send their children to a private school by any means necessary. The choice of comparatively low cost private schools is much wider that the UK. There are schools to suit every purse and then there are schools that everyone else ends up in. And then there are Special Schools.
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At Motores School, all of the children are in wheelchairs. The school is inside the hospital but there has been no money to convert the rooms into classrooms. Motores is a school for children in wheelchairs on the first floor. There is no garden, no outdoor space. Most have cerebral palsy. Nico, 16, Boca fan, arrives proudly in his red tracksuit. His condition is more severe than I had predicted. Strapped into an ancient chair his movement is wild and uncontrolled. Seeing Mariana his eyes sparkle. He engages immediately. He loves learning English, he loves Mariana. She asks him a question. After a pause longer than is comfortable, he reveals an understanding deeper than I ever expected. He physically relaxes smiles broadly, laughs joyously. Pride in his knowledge of a foreign language temporarily sweeps away the discomfort of his daily life. Asked how he is feeling his response is "I am as well as I can be". His stoicism is devastatingly humbling.
Nocilla, 14, is happy because today is Friday. She holds my hand through the lesson and her excitement pulses. But her enthusiasm for the weekend is not shared by all of the children. Many return to the shantytowns where there is still no outdoor space and no one to care for them properly. The school might be a difficult environment for outsiders to accept, but at least it keeps poverty at bay.
I am reminded of St Paul's and the ‘tough lives' of some of the children. Looking around at Nocilla, strapped in and struggling sat in a hospital room on the first floor with no air con. Money can't buy you happiness but it can ease the environment, buy a new chair and alleviate the pain of poverty. The difficulties have no parallel. Monday to Friday the lives of the children are fully supported. At the weekends and during holidays the state withdraws and support disappears. Recent surveys in Argentina show nearly one out of every two students in Latin America does not finish secondary school. Some of these children would stay in school forever if they could.
The children are caught by the thinnest of safety nets held by a scouser called Susan Hillyard. Through drama, games, play and song she has created a pedagogy that works and trained a team to be inspirational. She has nudged her way into the Ministry of Education with persistence, determination and guile. What she has created with no money, working with children who have the most difficult lives, living in the most appalling circumstances are the same moments of inspiration that the teachers at St Paul's School are creating.
These teachers are teaching English to children whose lives put the vulnerabilities of the wealthy in the shade. Children who are under armed guard in Psychiatric hospitals, children with severe physical disabilities, children with terminal illnesses, street children, abused and neglected; children who society has given up on. "What is the point of teaching them English when they are going to die anyway?' is an attitude they are often confronted with. Underfunded, undervalued and under pressure the teachers from English in Action have little support from the outside. It soon became apparent that this crazy gang of teachers were doing something special, something really beautiful. With more heart than a thousand politicians, they are making change where it matters and proving everyone wrong. Their belief and passion rises above the apathy of the bureaucracy.
Spend too long in the UK and it is easy to feel that standards in education are declining. Spend five minutes outside and a different view quickly emerges. It is a British education that both the most wealthy parents and the most disadvantaged students crave. Wherever I travel, teachers, parents and children hold a deep respect for British Education. They are not just interested in past glories or the latest political fad. They are not in awe of our system which has many of the same issues, in miniature, as theirs. It is the expertise of British teachers that excites most of all. It is the dedication to an education that is beyond just exam results. The ability to teach knowledge and character, to design genuinely creative curriculum with ambition for each child. Worth bearing in mind just how well our teachers are respected when confronted with petty criticism by box ticking bureaucrats and tin pot politicians.