According to the announcement made by Brazil’s Minister of Education at the UNESCO-sponsored Impact of ICTs in Education conference, more than 24 mllion of public school students are served by the country’s Broadband in Schools program. Follow the link for the full story in Portuguese. Read on for the English translation. Brazil’s Public Network Technology Serves 24 Million StudentsThe technologies in education are available to 24.8 million public school students in Brazil. The number, which
corresponds to the total number of students served by the Broadband in Schools Program, was announced by the Ministry of Education was announced on Tuesday, April 27, during the conference, The Impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in education.

The meeting, sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), closed Wednesday, April 28. In the opening seminar, the Secretary of Distance Education in the Ministry of
Education, Carlos Eduardo Bielschowsky, highlighted the importance of reflection at the time the country has
invested in ICT in public schools. “Do not just give infrastructure. It is necessary to train faculty and provide
contents to be worked out in the classroom,” he said.

In 2009, 332,000 teachers were trained to work with technology in the classroom. Later this year, 303,000 will have participated in training courses. In another program, the Integrated Student, 75,000 students over 15 years will be trained to act as monitors in the computer labs in schools.

Bielschowsky noted the number of students attended the National Educational Technology (Integrated ProInfo), which serves 18.4 million public school students around the country and should reach 30 million by the end of the year. The secretary presented the programs of the Ministry of Education to take technology into the classroom, such as the Integrated ProInfo the Broadband in Schools , the International Bank for Educational Objects, the Public Domain, the ProInfo Projector, and One Laptop per Student (UCA).

For the UNESCO representative in Brazil, Vincent Defourny, the training of teachers is crucial in the process of
introducing ICT in education. “We need to transform society education in a knowledge society,” he said. “There is the need to involve students managers and also the family and society, which are part of the school community.